


Immortal

by Cylina Nightshade (Cylina)



Category: Gundam Wing
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Blood, Blood Drinking, Fantasy, M/M, Vampire Hunters, Vampires, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-10-26
Updated: 2015-07-12
Packaged: 2018-02-22 15:39:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 35,242
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2512949
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cylina/pseuds/Cylina%20Nightshade
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Vampire Prince Heero has to delve into the world of humans and their wars to save his own world. (Quasi-AU)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

A four person honor guard greeted me as I departed the shuttle into the docking bay. They were sent simply to escort me from the shuttle to the car. Completely ridiculous. While I was quite young for a vampire, less than a century old, the fact that I was born a prince of the Yuy line meant I was much stronger than your average vampire. I certainly didn’t require four babysitters to help me to the car. Even if I did happen to be attacked in broad daylight outside of a shuttle port full of bustling human witnesses, I was not alone. My retainer never left my side. Odin Lowe was assigned to me shortly after my birth. The older vampire had been given the task of teaching me how to fight and defend myself, and generally prepare me to eventually take over my father’s role as King of Vampires. Some of the court had started to joke about how he was my “nanny”, that is, until he finally heard someone say it and ripped out their throat. The nickname died shortly after that.

It had been 8 years since my last visit to this colony. A blink of an eye for an immortal, but a decent enough time for mortals. Despite that though, as I looked out the window I noticed that nothing had changed. L2 was just as much of a run down poor excuse for a colony as it ever was.

The dimly lit alleys filled with multitudes of nameless vagrants no one would miss made the colony prime feeding grounds for vampires; which was why L2 was host to the largest single clan. Their numbers may not rival what could be found on all of Earth, but Earth’s vampire population was divided into multiple clans, and there existed no other place in all of the Earth Sphere where such a concentration of vampires could be found.

* * *

As we neared the run down warehouse complex the L2 clan called home, I was surprised to see a six person honor guard waiting for me. I was even more surprised when I was close enough to sense them. My guards at the shuttle port had all been vampires of roughly a few centuries, just old enough to be able to stand sunlight. These on the other hand were much older. I sensed that one or two of them may even be over a millenia in age. The L2 clan had always been exceedingly loyal to the crown and I saw no need for such an excessive guard force especially considering the reason I was here. I had come to this colony simply to check in with the local clan. It was a habit I attempted to upkeep with all clans. My mission here pretty much boiled down to a "meet and greet" and certainly didn't require such a guard force.

I exited the vehicle and with Odin slightly behind me and to the right, I headed down the winding back alleys to the warehouse entrance. I eyed the guards warily as they took up positions around me.

* * *

"Heya, boy, long time no see!" My lips quirked into a slight smile against my wishes at the exuberant greeting. The head of the L2 clan had always adopted a more casual tone around me, much to the annoyance of many more stodgy vampires. I personally found the vampire's mannerisms to be refreshing. 

"It hasn't been that long. Though I assume your clan has been doing fine in the meantime?"

"Eh, we've been managing." The clan leader gave a slight shrug of his shoulders causing some of his shoulder-length dirty blond hair to fall in front of his seafoam green eyes. I had never been able to figure out if his hair was that color naturally or if it was the layer of grime. The leader took his cover role seriously. It was generally easier for the vampires of L2 to take on the appearance of one of the many downtrodden and the L2 clan leader, with his appearance of being a human of around 14 years, went with the cover of being a street urchin. He even went so far as to not bathe on a regular basis since nothing would stand out more than a sparkling clean street rat. I raised my eyebrow at him, requesting an elaboration.

"Well, ya know how it is. The feedin's good, but we've been havin' problems with them hunters."

"Ah. Will you require assistance?"

"Nah. Think we can handle 'em fine on our own."

"Don't hesitate to ask if the situation changes."

"Sure, no prob. You gonna be stayin' for dinner? 'Bout time for the drunks to be headin' out. I can get one'a the boys to glam¹ ya one."

"I appreciate the offer but it is not necessary. I shall be heading back shortly."

"Alrighty. See ya around, kid. Don't be no stranger."

"Certainly. Until we meet again, Solo."

* * *

The six guards were still there when I exited the warehouse into the back alleys and once again took up positions around me. Around halfway back to the vehicle, we came around a turn in the alley and there were the four guards from the shuttle port waiting for us. I instantly went on full alert.

Not even a second later I sensed an attack coming from behind me. My attempt to dodge the attack resulted in the silver dagger landing a blow to my lower back, possibly piercing my left lung, but successfully avoiding my heart. My unexpected movement had ripped the dagger out of the attacking guard's hands and it was now lodged in my body. I could feel the burning sensation the silver gave when in contact with my flesh.

I quickly reached around to yank it out and returned it to its owner, via a toss that had it land squarely in the guard's heart. I promptly ducked beneath another guard's attack and kicked out against his legs, upsetting his balance. I grabbed the small dagger from my boot sheath as I shot back upward and performed a spin that allowed me to slit the throat of yet another guard that had been trying to get me from behind.

I was able to spare a moment to note that Odin had taken down one guard and was currently fighting another before I saw a fourth guard bearing down on me. I threw my dagger at him and dropped into a roll when another guard decided to take a page from my book and threw a dagger at me. I successfully choreographed my roll to end near the guard I had just downed and retrieved my dagger from his chest.

Before I had the chance to perform my next move, I heard a gunshot and felt a sharp pain in my right shoulder. I glanced up just in time to see Odin charge the shooter and begin to wrestle for the gun. I then felt a sharp pain in my thigh and saw that the guard I had knocked over previously had shoved a dagger there to the hilt. I responded by jamming my dagger up under his chin.

I heard yet another gun shot and turned sharply, worried about Odin. Just then Odin successfully obtained the gun and shot its former owner in the face. He made his way over near me and it was then that I noticed the growing red stain at his abdomen. Three of the remaining guards started to head towards us with daggers out while the fourth pulled out a gun. "Run! I'll hold them off here. You get somewhere safe!" I hesitated only a moment, unwilling to leave Odin to face four opponents on his own but then the guard with the gun took aim on me and I turned to run.

I heard yet another gun shot but since I felt no new wound, I assumed either the guard missed or it was Odin's shot. I quickly sprinted for the end of the alley. As I turned the corner I glanced toward Odin, just in time to see the guard with the gun shoot him in the temple while another guard bore down on his body to finish the job. I froze on the spot. _No!_ I couldn't believe it. _You can't kill Odin!_ Before I had a chance to turn back though, the guard with the gun once again took aim at me. I quickly ran the rest of the way around the corner and heard the bullet bite into the brick wall near where my head had just been.

I sprinted past the parked vehicle that I had arrived in and picked a direction at random. I heard yet another gun shot but luckily the guard once again missed. I kept running, blindly choosing alley after alley. I jumped fences and took quick turns around buildings. I had no idea how long I ran, but it was still the night cycle when eventually I felt that I had lost my pursuers. I kept going just to be sure.

As I ran I checked the gunshot wound in my shoulder. It felt like a through-and-through so I shouldn't have to worry about poisoning from a silver bullet. The two stab wounds were making me weak but weren't life threatening on their own. I then turned my thoughts toward the events that had just occurred. Attacked by my own guards; I had obviously been betrayed. I could only think of one person who could get the Royal Honor Guard to attack me, and they also were the one who would most profit from my death.

I had been betrayed by the Royal Honor Guard Captain who was also filling the role of Lord Regent until I came of age to ascend the throne. I had been betrayed by Treize Khushrenada.

* * *

As I entered yet another refuse-filled alley, I stumbled in my headlong run. I fell to my knees briefly before collapsing completely face first on the grungy concrete. I knew the colony’s day cycle would start soon and understood this to be my end. The colonies replicated sunlight exactly, and while I was normally able to counteract the effects of the sun, I was far too weak in my current state. _I’m sorry Odin. It seems your sacrifice was in vain._

As I laid prone on the alley floor, I heard a quiet rustling sound. I turned my head toward the source of the noise and to my surprise, I saw a small human child start to emerge from amidst a pile of rubbish. The child noticed me and froze, staring. I couldn’t help but note that I had never seen such a peculiar color of eyes before. They were the most alluring shade of violet, two sparkling amethysts focused my way. Then the child blinked and started moving again. The small human extracted itself the rest of the way from the rubbish and it was at that point that I noticed the long chestnut hair, well past shoulder-length. Despite the hair though, I was quite certain the child was a boy.

The small boy, who couldn’t have been more than 5, possibly 6, years old, slowly looked over what he could see of my form; my blood gradually pooling around me. I saw him nod to himself and then looked me in the eyes again. “You’re hurt. I’s gotta hidey hole here. You can use it ta get better.” Without waiting on a response the petite human child walked up and grabbed my arm just below my shoulder, attempting to pull me towards the pile of rubbish from which he had emerged. I dredged up enough energy to crawl in the direction he was trying to drag me. The child shifted the pile of rubbish and I could make out a hole in the side of the building behind it. It was a tight squeeze, and my weakness made it far more difficult than it should have been, but I made it through. I glanced around and noticed that the inside of the building was partially collapsed. The rubble completely surrounded this small pocket of space and the only access to it being the hole in the wall, which the child quickly covered back up with the rubbish.

“Dun worry. The bad’uns dunno bout this place. Whoever beat ya won’t be able to find ya here.” The child gave the most disarming smile. I simply nodded my head and rested my battered body on the cool concrete floor. I was promptly unconscious.

* * *

When I came to, the first thing I noticed was a scrap of bread crust and an overripe apple placed on the floor a few inches in front of my face. I glanced around as I sat up and saw the small child sitting cross legged just a few feet from me. He grinned beatifically and cocked his head slightly to the side. “I gots ya some food.” The child’s expression dimmed slightly and he shifted his eyes to stare at a point on the floor to my left. “Sorry it’s not that great. Best I could do.”

“It’s ok. I don’t eat human food.”

“Ya don’t? I’ll take it then!” The child’s small hand quickly snatched the bread crust off the floor. A thoughtful expression crossed his face as he began to nibble on the crust. “Whatcha eat if ya don’t eat food?”

For the life of me, I don’t know why, but I felt compelled to answer that question honestly. The petite, innocent human was simply bewitching, and thus, even though I should have lied, I didn’t. “I drink blood.”

The child’s eyes grew impossibly wide and I knew this would be the moment when he would scramble away from my presence. A pang of guilt passed through me as I realised the boy would probably be too afraid to return to his hiding spot and would have to find a new one. Though as I was thinking that, instead of running, the child continued to sit cross legged across from me. He was staring at his tiny hand with a contemplative look. He glanced back my way and asked, “Does blood taste good?”

I couldn’t help it; I laughed. I had never before met a human like this child. “It tastes good to me, but it wouldn’t taste good to you, Little One.”

“Oh. Well, do ya wanna drink my blood?” And the petite, angelic human offered his arm to me, hand open and wrist facing upward.

It was my turn for my eyes to widen. Such an earnest offer given with no hesitation. The simple thought of drinking his blood made the Hunger grow. I had gained back some of my strength from resting, but I would really need to feed to recover fully, and here was an offer of blood freely given. I hesitated still, not wanting to frighten the child. “Are you sure?”

The child shrugged his diminutive shoulders. “Does it hurt?”

“It would, but for only a moment. Then I’m told it feels rather pleasant.”

“Ok.” The child crawled closer so that he would be within reach and once again presented his arm, wrist upwards.

I gently grabbed the delicate wrist and leaned towards it. The child gave a small wince as my fangs pierced the sensitive skin, but then as the blood started to well up and I tenderly began to suckle, he relaxed. His eyes drooped to half-mast and a small grin graced his features. I very carefully monitored his well being. With the child’s lifestyle of having to scrounge for scraps of food, he was probably not at full health to start with, so taking his blood was a delicate procedure. I did not want to harm the child by taking too much.

I had to stop myself long before the Hunger wanted to, but I had reached the point where the child could not handle any more. I gently lapped the pierce marks, causing them to heal over. The small boy was barely conscious and I guided him to lay down on the floor, cupping his head to prevent injury. With the child sleeping soundly, I slowly made my way out of the hiding place.

I took stock of my body. Between resting and feeding, my wounds had fully healed. I was not 100% yet, but I was certainly more than functional. I had regained enough of my powers that I would once again be able to sense others of my kind, so I felt safe wandering around the colony again.

* * *

It had taken me longer than I would have liked to finally find what I was looking for but I now headed back to the secret hiding place with my prize. It took a bit of maneuvering but I was able to make it through the entrance hole one handed with my prize intact. I placed the travel container filled with lentil soup next to the slumbering child.

I watched the child sleep for a moment, observing how the delicate chest rose and fell as the boy breathed. This small human child had saved my life, asking nothing in exchange. A bowl of soup seemed far too inadequate as repayment.

I reached forward and reverently brushed the bangs out of the child’s face. To find such a pure, unsullied being in such a place as this was a surprise. To find a human like this one was rare enough, but to find one in the squalor of L2 I would have never believed possible. Before I was even aware I was doing it, I had pricked my forefinger on my fang and began to draw a rune on the child’s forehead with my blood. I focused my being, pulling my powers to me. My eyes began giving off a cobalt blue glow. “Ex viribus humani hanc meam amodo usque in sempiternum.”² The rune glowed bright red briefly before fading completely, signifying the spell taking hold. Now no vampire weaker than me would be able to harm the child, and since vampires stronger than me were practically non-existent, the child would most likely be safe from all vampires for the rest of his life. Though I did hope Solo would be able to sense my claim spell and take the boy under his wing. Protecting the child from becoming prey to vampires didn't prevent the child from becoming prey to humans.

I had to leave soon. I had undoubtedly been detected during my wandering earlier looking for food for the child. While I had avoided coming too close to any vampire, they would still be able to sense my presence in general even though they would not have been close enough to sense my specific location. Treize’s troops had certainly been informed of my continued existence by now and would be searching for me to finish the job. I would have to leave before I led them to this location.

"Thank you, Little One." I took what I assumed was my last look at the small human child and then left. I wasn’t sure where I was going but I was sure of one thing; if I was going to get my revenge on Treize I would have to prepare and plan.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> -Author’s Note-
> 
> Thanks for reading!
> 
> Reviews are greatly appreciated but I’m not gonna bug people for them. My only request is that if you feel the need to tell me my story sucks, please tell me why you think so, otherwise I’ll just assume you’re an uncreative troll. Thanks. :)
> 
> [1] glam = glamour
> 
> [2]”Ex viribus humani hanc meam amodo usque in sempiternum.” - Hopefully this translates to something like “By my powers, I claim this human as mine from now until eternity” since that’s what I asked Google Translate to tell me, but since I don’t know a stitch of Latin, for all I know Heero could be saying “I crave purple gummi octopi.”
> 
> For the curious (since I couldn't find a good place to put this info in the story), Heero can't become king until he is at least 100 years old.
> 
> My own personal thoughts/lore on vampire ages & aging:  
> Vampires have as much trouble with change as humans do and thus the vast majority don't even make it their first millennia. They either A) have too much trouble adapting, making them stand out too much and thus are found by hunters and killed or B) become weary with trying to keep up with the ever changing world of humans and decide to end their own existence. (Think about how much trouble your grandmother has with modern technology or even accepting modern fashion trends and then multiply that by 10.) The number of vampires slowly tapers off as you near the 1k years mark and practically cliff dives after that. So a vampire that is at least 1,000 years old would be respected. Vampires that are at least 2,000 years old would be uncommon, and vampires that are 3,000 or older would be almost mythical.  
> As for aging, vampires age mentally and physically the same as humans until they reach puberty, then they stop physically aging naturally. A vampire can then use their powers to continue to physically age but at the expense of being weaker during the aging time. So to many vampires, physically appearing old would be a sign of power. Sort of like displaying you have "power to spare".  
> The older a vampire is, the more powerful they are (usually). So, a 2k yr old vamp would be stronger than a 1k yr old vamp.  
> To get an idea of how a vampire would be perceived by another vampire, take their age and divide by 10 to get their age in "human years". So a 600 year old vamp = 60 year old human. (But keep in mind that they age mentally the same as humans. So while a 100 yr old vamp may be treated like a 10 yr old child, they wouldn't have the mentality of a 10 yr old.)  
> For my own mental timeline, I defined AD 3000 as being when the planet switched over to the AC time measurement.
> 
> My own personal thoughts/lore on disabling/killing vampires:  
> There are two ways to kill a vampire. Removing them from (or destroying) their brain is the quickest. Decapitation of course being the cleanest and most surefire way, but a scatter shot type weapon could work too. The trick would be to make sure the shot destroyed enough of their brain. The other way to kill a vampire is through silver poisoning. It is of course much slower and gives the vampire a chance to remove the silver, thus preventing death.  
> Other types of mortal wounds would not kill a vampire but could disable a vampire. Stabbing a vampire in the heart for example would "stun" the vampire, effectively taking them out of a fight and giving you a chance to decapitate them.
> 
> Also, I’m not happy with this title. Had kinda spur-of-the-moment decided to upload my two completed chapters but when I went to upload them I noticed my story still had it’s stand-in title of “vamp heero” and that certainly wouldn’t do. Immortal was just the first vaguely vampiry thing that popped into my head. >.<
> 
> Timeline: Episode Zero (manga)


	2. Interlude

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Additional warnings for this chapter: references to child prostitution, references to rape, deaths of minor characters

_Duo’s POV_

I had decided I was going to spend my evening camped out by Big Jerry's shop. It was a risk but it usually paid off. Big Jerry's was in "that" part of town, you know? The part where it didn't matter that I was only a 6 year old boy. Though don't get me wrong, I wasn't there to pick up Johns. I was never into that shit no matter how much my life sucked. No, I was there for the easy pickpocketing. You'd be surprised how many didn't notice you're robbing them blind when they're more focused on trying to cop a feel. The risk was that Big Jerry felt my presence scared off customers. So if he saw me he'd send out some of his boys to "discourage" me, and by discourage I mean beat the shit out of me.

I was watching the few pedestrians walking the street, judging their potentials as marks, when this blond kid arrived. He was walking along with his head down watching the sidewalk minding his own business when suddenly his head shoots up and he stares right at me. Pretty weird, right? He started to head right towards me, not breaking eye contact the whole time. I wasn't sure if the guy was even blinking. Anyways, the kid certainly freaked me out a bit and so I did what you should always do when something in that part of town freaks you out, I up and hauled ass.

Now let me tell you, I may have been a scrawny kid but don't doubt my ability to run. I was one fast little shit. Thing is, that blond kid was one determined mother fucker. I'd never had someone give me such a run for my money before. I think the guy chased me over half the damn colony. It certainly made me even more freaked out the longer the chase went. I hadn't even stolen anything from the guy yet! It took clear through the rest of the night cycle and a third of the day cycle before I finally ditched the freak. Just to be sure though I went to one of my back up places instead of my main place. I was pretty pissed off by the time I curled up to sleep. I was fucking exhausted from my trek all over L2 and I'd only gotten to rob three people. As I entered the world of dreams I had one final thought go through my head; I really hoped that was the last time I saw the kid with dirty blond hair and seafoam green eyes.

* * *

I couldn't catch a fucking break. I tried to vary which times I went out and what places I hit but I always ended up being chased to hell and back. I was followed by the blond kid twice more but it seemed like he was part of a gang or something because even if I didn't run across him there was always someone trying to catch me. I hadn't had a good haul in over a week! It was even worse than the time I nicked the local crime lord's family heirloom watch. Hey, I thought it'd be fun. How was I suppose to know the thing'd been in his family for nine generations?

I was actually starting to worry. Between all the running and not being able to steal much, I was starting to get weak. I really needed to eat something soon.

* * *

It was the third time I met up with the blond kid when my luck finally ran out. I gave it my best try, going down this alley that had a nice, tall chain link fence I could normally use to get people off my tail, but this time it didn't work out as I'd hoped. I was halfway up the fence when the edges of my vision started to grey. It was all I could do to simply hold on to the fence. I heard footsteps pounding down the alley behind me and knew I was caught. _I really hope these freaks aren't pervs._ I could feel myself lose grip on the fence as my vision went to black.

* * *

The first thing I noticed when I came to was that, well, that I came to. So they obviously hadn’t murdered me in my sleep. The second thing I noticed was a pain in my skull pounding in time with the beat of my heart, meaning I probably hadn’t been drugged. There were no other pains, so I probably hadn’t been raped either. Finally, and the strangest of all, I noticed I was actually comfortable.

A quick glance around showed me I was in what seemed to be a storage room. I was on top of a somewhat dirty but still nice blanket with another covering me, and I was warm. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d had a hideaway that was actually warm.

A soft click was all the warning I had before the door to the storage room swung open and the blond kid who had become the bane of my existence over the past week entered the room. He was carrying something in his hand but I couldn’t really make out what it was from where I sat. He noticed I was awake and smiled.

“You’re a tough little shit to catch, you know that, kid?”

“That’s sorta the point. An’ I never asked you to try ta catch me so why’re you complainin’ ta me about it?”

The blond boy laughed. “Well, ya certainly have a point there.”

He walked across the room to me and I started to edge backwards. “Hey, ya don’t gotta be afraid of me. I’m just giving ya this for your head. You smacked it dang good when you fell off that fence.” It was then that I made out that what he held in his hand was a bag of ice wrapped in a towel. I let him get near enough to hand over the ice pack and then he took a few steps back but didn’t leave the room.

I eyed him warily. “What do ya want with me?”

“I want ya to join my clan.”

“Clan? What the fuck’s a clan? And just so ya know, don’t be gettin’ no ideas if you’re a pimp. I’ll cut off your balls before I let ya sell me.”

The blond kid laughed again and mumbled something to himself that sounded like, “He sure knows how to pick ‘em.” He returned to speaking so I could hear him when he replied, “Dun worry. I ain’t no pimp. And a clan.. uhh.. guess you could call it a gang. We just kinda hang out and look out for eachother, ya know?”

“And why do ya want me to join your gang?”

“It’s a favor to a friend.”

I just stared into his seafoam green eyes. _A favor to a friend? What the fuck does that mean? No one tries ta give ya somethin’ for nothin’._ “And what would ya expect me ta do once I’m in your gang?”

“Jus’ the same as everyone else. Look out for eachother. Maybe help with gettin’ supplies once in awhile. We’ll look out for you too.”

It was right then that my stomach decided to make known that I hadn’t fed it properly in over a week. I couldn’t help but blush.

The blond kid gave another smile and yelled toward the open door, “Hey, Jen, did Chase get back yet?” I heard a female voice respond with a faint ‘yeah’. “Well, what’s he waitin’ on. Have him come in here already!” Barely any time later another kid entered the room with a small white paper bag in his hand. He handed it over to the blond boy and then hurried back out. “Here ya go, kid. Enjoy.” The blond boy tossed the bag to me.

I opened it to find a bag of potato chips and something wrapped in thin white paper. The object in the white wrapping turned out to be the most delicious looking turkey sandwich I had ever seen in my life. I promptly started to devour it.

“Hey! Slow down, kid. Dun gotta eat so fast. We ain’t gonna take it from ya.” The blonde boy chuckled. I slowed down, but kept my eyes on him to make sure he didn’t come near me or my sandwich.

When I had finished all the food, I started to feel drowsy. A thread of panic went through me before I took stock that it was natural drowsiness and not drug induced. I couldn’t hide the yawn.

“Go ahead ‘n sleep, kid. You’re safe here. I’ll have the boys get ya something more ta eat when ya wake back up.” The blond boy started to head to the door before pausing to call over his shoulder. “Oh, if ya need anything just ask any of the gang ta find me. The name’s Solo.” And with a jaunty wave he left the room.

* * *

I was surprised how quickly I adapted to being part of Solo’s gang. I had been on my own for as long as I could remember so I figured it would take some getting use to, but it didn’t take long before it seemed like I had always been a part of the gang. I kept up my pickpocketing, but Solo never let me go into any of the _really_ bad parts of town anymore. I even occasionally caught one of the guys keeping an eye on me even when I was in the “ok” parts of the town. I always gave my pickpocketing haul to Solo. I guess he divided it up between the gang or something, but they let me keep any food I stole. I didn’t even _have_ to steal food anymore, because the gang got me three fresh meals a day. I was in heaven! I was certainly glad I never had to go scrounging in dumpsters outside of restaurants anymore.

I don’t know if it was because the rest of the gang was all older than me, the youngest being around 12 or so, but I quickly became sort of the gang’s “mascot”. It seemed they all were trying to look out for me, and I had no shortage of hair mussings whether I wanted them or not. I spent most my time following Solo everywhere he went. The rest of the gang started to jokingly call me Duo.

The only thing I could wish for was that Solo would tell me who his friend was for which he was doing the favor of taking me in, but any time I asked, Solo would just tell me that if I hadn’t been told already, it wasn’t his place to say.

* * *

It all went to hell on a gloomy day the L2 colony had a scheduled “rain”. The weather system on L2 never was the best, and the rain sprinklers never worked well. They gave off more of a mist than anything at all. I always wondered why the colony even bothered with rain since it wasn't like L2 had actual plants like the other colonies, but I had been told it was something to do with cleaning. Not like that reason actually made sense though; L2 was filthy whether it “rained” or not.

Solo was out doing whatever he did when he didn’t let me follow him, and I was hanging out in my “room”, the little corner of the storage room I had originally woken up in. I was busy trying to do a workbook Chase had gotten me that was meant to teach me how to spell when I heard a commotion out in the main part of the warehouse. When I went to see what was going on all I could make out was chaos. Some of the gang were practically carrying others into the main room, and there were gang members laying on the floor all over. Most of them looked even paler than usual.

Over the next few days, they gradually all got weaker. I didn’t know what it was but it seemed most the gang had caught some sickness. I kept asking what was wrong, but they ignored my question. The only time someone answered, they had said something about “colloidal silver” in the weather system, but I had no idea what that was suppose to mean. I ended up just hanging out with Solo in his room holding his hand hoping he'd get better but watching as he gradually got worse.

It was nearly a week. I never could get Solo to eat any of the food I offered, and no matter what he never seemed to get better. Just short of a week after the strange outbreak, he closed his eyes never to open them again. 

Solo always told me that boys don’t cry. So I tried to keep the tears inside as I cradled his head in my lap. I’m not sure I succeeded.

* * *

Sometime that same night, I heard another commotion in the main room, but I just couldn’t gather the will to bother finding out what was going on. I eventually heard the door slam open and what sounded like multiple people rush in the room. I looked up to see an older man and a younger man, neither of which I knew, standing just inside Solo’s door. The younger man seem startled at first to see me before gaining a determined expression and started to walk towards me. It was then that I noticed the gleaming, blood covered dagger he held in his hand.

The older man hadn’t moved from the door, just watching the younger man approach me. Just as the younger man reached me and pulled back his arm holding the dagger, the older man called out, “Wait!” He quickly left his position by the door and came near. He kneeled down in front of Solo and me, gripped my chin with his weathered hand, and tilted my face towards his. He seemed to be staring at my forehead. “I’m sensing a claim spell. I think this one may be human.”

The younger man looked back in my direction, mouth agape. “You mean the monsters were keeping a kid as a pet? The sick fucks.”

The older man removed a necklace, and bade me to loosen my grip from Solo so he could hand it to me. I took the necklace from him and looked down at what I held in my palm. It was a small silver cross. I looked back up at the older man, wondering what he meant for me to do with the necklace.

It was the younger man who spoke first. “Shit! The kid really is human. What do you want to do with him, Father?”

The older man gave him a stern look. “Why are you even asking? We’ll take him back to the orphanage like all the other children we’ve come across while hunting. Just because this one was claimed instead of merely being a victim at the wrong place and time doesn’t change a thing.” I didn’t want to, but the older man eventually convinced me to let go of Solo and stand up. Using one arm just below my rump, he lifted me up. He place his free hand on the back of my head and directed my face into the crook of his neck. I couldn’t see anything as we left the warehouse, but the silence of the place was deafening.

* * *

I guess I fell asleep while the old man carried me because I only vaguely remember a car ride. I don’t even remember getting out of the car either. I eventually woke up at some point to find myself on a small cot bed. The bed I occupied was only one of many, lining both sides of a long narrow room. Each bed had a small foot locker situated on the floor in front of it. I was completely alone in the room of beds.

As I got out of the bed, I felt something in my hand. I still had the silver cross the older man had given me. I stuck the necklace in my pocket and continued with my explorations. Once in the hallway, I could hear a slight humming. I followed the lyrical tones and found myself in what appeared to be a laundry room. A short, robust woman was folding items before setting them in a basket.

I entered the room, figuring she could probably tell me where I was at least. “Umm… hello?”

The woman started, yelling, “Oh glory be!” She saw that it was only me and calmed down. “Good heavens, child. You’ll scare a poor woman to death sneaking up like that.”

“Sorry? Umm… could ya tell me where I am?”

“You must be the poor thing Father brought in last night. You’re at Father Maxwell’s orphanage. Now that you’re awake he’ll want to talk to you. Come on. I’ll take you to his office.” The woman grabbed my hand and bustled me through the halls.

The woman took me up to a large, dark wooden door. I hate to admit it, but the thing was sort of intimidating, even if it was only a door. She rapped smartly on the door and waited for the quiet “come in” before pushing the door open and depositing me inside.

I found myself alone in the room with the older man I met the night Solo had died. The man gave me a small warm smile while motioning for me to sit in one of the chairs facing his desk. Once I was seated, he promptly began to talk. “I’m sure you have questions, child, so I’ll try my best to explain everything. I’m Father Maxwell and this building is a church and orphanage I run. You’re welcome to stay here until we find your family to reunite you.”

I gave the man a questioning look. “My family? But I was with my family when ya found me.”

The man gave me a sharp stare. I started to feel a bit uncomfortable and began squirming in my seat. Father Maxwell finally said, “I think you’ll need to explain more to me, child.”

“Well, ya see, Solo and his gang were my family. I never had no family before Solo took me in.” I took a deep breath to try to calm myself. _I will not cry. Solo says boys don’t cry._ “Though, Solo’s dead now. He got sick ‘bout a week ago and he never got better. Solo was the one ya found me with.”

Father Maxwell was quiet for a long moment. “So, you’re saying that… boy we found you with and his… gang were your family?”

“Yeah. So ya can just take me back to Solo’s place. I know a few of the gang didn’t get sick. I can go stay with them.”

The man seemed to have a slight puzzled expression on his face. “I’m sorry, child. They aren’t… there anymore.”

“Huh? They moved? But, how'm I suppose to find 'em now? I gots no other place ta stay. Use ta live on the street but I’m sure all my places got taken over by others by now.”

“This is an orphanage, child. If you have no other family then you will stay here.”

I could feel a slight blush on my cheeks. “Umm… I dunno what an orphanage is.”

Father Maxwell gave a small chuckle. “It’s pretty much just that, child. An orphanage is a place for children with no families to stay and be cared for.”

“So, you’re sayin’ you’re gonna feed me?” I suddenly got suspicious. “I don’t gotta do nothin’ I wouldn’t wanna, do I?”

The Father laughed outright at that. “Well, you may have to do the occasional chore, but that’s it. What’s your name, child?”

“M’name’s Duo.”

“Well, Duo, it’s nice to meet you. I’ll call Sister Helen to help get you settled.”

* * *

I didn’t have to wait long before the short, robust woman was back. She gave me an enthusiastic kiss on the forehead and welcomed me to the orphanage before leading me out of Father Maxwell's office. She brought me to another room where she gathered me a few changes of clothes, then led me back to the room of beds. She pointed out which bed was going to be mine and showed me how to open and lock my foot locker, while placing all but one set of my new clothes inside. After my bunk was all set up, the woman, who kept insisting I call her Sister Helen even though she wasn't my sister, led me to yet another room. This room had a large ceramic tub on one side of the room, and I had no idea what the room's purpose was. Sister Helen set aside my remaining change of clothes and quickly turned some knobs near one end of the tub and water started to pour out, slowly filling the tub. I was amazed. I'd never seen so much water in one place before.

I blame the novelty of the water for my distraction because before I knew it, Sister Helen was stripping me out of my dingy rags I called clothes. I admit it, I sort of freaked. In my experience, it was never a good thing when people you just met try to rip your clothes off. That woman must’ve been fucking magic though because no matter how I fought I couldn’t do anything and before long she had me buck naked and tossed in the tub. She promptly grabbed a washcloth and a bar of soap and began to scrub. When she got to washing my hair, I decided it was kind of nice actually.

After making sure I was all clean for probably the first time in my life, Sister Helen helped me get out of the tub and draped a huge fluffy towel over me, rubbing it all over. I got dressed in my new clothes, and she grabbed a hair brush to start working on taming the knotted mess on my head. When she grabbed the scissors though, I nearly ran. She tried to convince me, but I’m a stubborn little shit when I want to be and eventually she gave up on trying to cut it. Sister Helen ended up doing something to it she called braiding, to help keep it from knotting so much. I sort of thought it looked girly, but if it kept her from cutting it then what the hell, right?

* * *

Living at the orphanage was very different from living with Solo. Some things were better and some things I didn't like so much. My favourite was meal time. All the kids would gather in this big room with this really long table. There were matching long benches on either side of the table so everyone could squeeze on together and all eat at the same time. It was great! The guys in Solo's gang never would eat with me, always going off on their own. It always made meal times with the gang lonely, but here I got to talk to everyone! Though Jimmy stopped sitting next to me because I always snuck bites of his mashed potatoes, and Krissy wouldn't sit next to me because I'd never share my pudding with her. Who shares pudding anyways?

What I didn't like were the chores. I'd always be told to dust the church pews or help Sister Helen fold laundry or whatever else they could think of for me to do for punishment. It wasn't even my fault I got in trouble so much! One day I got in trouble when "Christopher" started crying because I kept calling him Chris. It's the same thing! One's just shorter and easier to say!

And how was I suppose to know you shouldn't nick the stuff off the altar? They shouldn't have it sitting out like that if they didn't want anyone to take it. Luckily Sister Helen has stopped yelling at me whenever I bring her my haul. She tried for awhile. Even made me wax all the pews after one time I brought her all the stuff. My arms hurt for a whole week after that one. Finally she said something like, "Well at least you're returning it all", and ever since then only gave a long sigh each time.

I knew I could always just stop stealing, but there wasn't much else to do in this place. The other kids got along with me just fine, but I guess I was just not use to kids my age. Whenever I was around them it usually just made me miss being back at the warehouse with the gang.

Other than stealing, my favourite game was trying to sneak up and scare the marks, or "mommies and daddies" as Sister Helen would call them. The couples who visited looking for a kid to adopt generally were all sorts of quiet and boring. They had to have appreciated my efforts in spicing up their life! Sister Helen would try to tell me that I'd never get adopted if I kept that up, but who would want to get adopted by people who were so boring? I’d probably end up dying of boredom, and anyways, I would have prefered staying with Sister Helen and Father Maxwell. Though this sneaking up on people thing was kind of fun. Maybe I should start doing it to the other kids too instead of just waiting on the visiting parents?

* * *

Suzy was the one who ratted me out. I should have known she'd be a snitch. You'd think she would have just kept quiet about it but nooo. The frisbee had been up there for weeks now and it was obvious that it wasn't going to come down anytime soon. I figured I would just go up there and get it. Certainly didn't look that hard. All I had to do was climb up the first floor window, grab onto the second floor window and pull myself up, then a small leap over to the stone pig thing on the corner of the roof. Sister Helen kept saying the stone pig thing was called a gargoyle but it really just looked like a pig thing to me. Once I had ahold of the stone "gargoyle" then it'd be a piece of cake to pull myself up to the roof. I'd been climbing things all over the church; it was one of the best ways to scare people. No one ever suspected you to jump out of somewhere they didn't think you could get to in the first place. It was just as I had got one of my feet on top of the pig thing's head to push myself the rest of the way up when I heard Suzy scream. I glanced down just in time to see her run into the church. I didn't think anything of it and just went ahead and got the frisbee. I tossed it down to Kyle who was yelling about how that was, "The coolest thing I have EVER seen!"

I was just walking around the edge of the roof seeing if I could make out any buildings I recognised in this part of town when Sister Helen ran out with Father Maxwell not far behind her. I heard Sister Helen gasp and when I looked her way I saw her holding a hand to her breast. "Oh God in heaven! Duo, get down here this instant before you break your neck!" Father Maxwell was oddly quiet in comparison to the racket Sister Helen was making.

I shrugged my shoulders and made my way over to the pig thing. I held on with my arms and dropped my legs down to dangle below me. I knew the next step would be the tricky part. I started to swing my legs back and forth. I had to get enough momentum that I could reach the second floor window sill. I timed my swing and let go. I heard Sister Helen scream but paid no attention to it as I grabbed the window sill and then quickly scrambled to better my grip. Then it was no time at all to clamber my way down the windows and drop onto the grass ground below.

Sister Helen instantly ran over to smother me in a bear hug. I think she was even crying. Father Maxwell was just kind of staring at me. If I didn't know any better I'd say he was sizing me up. It was just like the look I use to see on some of the guys on the street just before they got in fights.

* * *

I was "grounded" for an entire week after the frisbee thing. Those church pews have probably never been cleaner. It was on the last day of my enforced servitude that Father Maxwell approached me. He told me he wanted me to follow him, and since I figured whatever he wanted had to be better than polishing church pews, I followed. He led me to a back hallway of the church. I knew this particular hallway well since it had the only locked door in the whole building. That door had been the focus of many hours of thoughts, wondering what could possibly be behind it. I felt a thrill of excitement when Father Maxwell walked passed all the boring doors and pulled out a key from his pocket. He went straight to the mystery door, opened it, and bade me to follow.

The door opened onto a dimly lit spiral staircase leading down. I trailed my fingers along the wall as I descended. The stairs let out into a large windowless room. In the center of the room there were a pair of men I didn’t know but vaguely recognised from seeing them pass through the orphanage hallway. They seemed to be fighting each other using wooden sticks, but no one else seemed to be taking note of them or trying to stop them so I guessed it was some sort of game. Covering the sheet metal walls of the room were various metal objects, plenty of knives of various shapes and sizes along with many other things I didn’t recognise. The long thin metal things I guessed were swords. They matched the description Sister Helen gave during some story she read us a few weeks back.

I stared at all the new sights until I heard a mildly sneering voice ask, “What’s the pet doing here?” I looked to the owner of the voice and saw the younger man that had accompanied Father Maxwell the night I met him.

Father Maxwell yelled back, “Mikhael! I will not hear you calling him that again! Do I make myself clear?”

“Yes, Father.”

By now the two fighting men had stopped and stood facing Father as well. Father Maxwell turned slightly to include them in what he said next. “Everyone, I’d like you to meet Duo. He is going to be training here from now on. I expect everyone to make him feel welcome.”

One of the men in the center smiled at me while the other yelled over, “Nice to meet you, Duo!” I grinned at the both of them.

* * *

Whenever I wasn’t sleeping, eating meals with the other kids, or in lessons with Sister Helen, I was in the basement room practicing with different weapons. The guys had tried to teach me many of them but some just weren’t my thing, you know? Daggers were easy. I’d already had some practice with daggers. If you could get your hands on one, they were really useful for keeping off pervs. I also took to the handguns. I didn’t like the swords. They just seemed awkward. And what was the point of throwing stars? A good dagger is better than a throwing star any day.

Today Mikhael was teaching me how to make bullets. I was busy keeping an eye on the silver ingots as they melted over the electric burner. The stuff stank pretty bad even though this part of the room was set up with an exhaust fan and ventilation. I also had to make sure my braid didn’t hit or fall in anything as I turned my head to watch Mikhael remove some bullets we poured a bit earlier from their molds. He held one up to eye level to inspect it. “Perfect. The monsters won’t know what hit ‘em.” I’d gotten use to Mikhael talking about ‘monsters’ though I really had no idea what he was talking about. The other guys never gave him odd looks when he said it so I figured he wasn’t a crazy like the old guy I met who lived in the alley off 5th Street. The one time I had asked him what he was talking about he simply told me, “Just like that thing we found you with.” It took me awhile to figure out he was talking about Solo, and when I did I was even more confused. Why would he call Solo a monster? I never did bother asking him to explain it again.

* * *

Everything changed the day the rebels took shelter at the church. They yelled at Father Maxwell and even hit Sister Helen! I told them I’d get them what they want if they’d just promise to leave afterwards.

Getting into the Alliance base was pretty damn easy. The fuckers tried to shoot me a few times but I made it to the mobile suit transport unscathed. It was a simple matter to hop in and drive off.

My eyes went wide when I made it back to the church. The church… the church was burning…

“Father Maxwell! Sister Helen! Suzy! Jimmy!” I started calling the names for everyone I knew. The smoke was making my voice hoarse and my throat ache.

I heard someone say my name. I turned and saw Sister Helen laying on the ground. I ran over and kneeled next to her. I told her I’d find a doctor but she stopped me. She told me the Alliance attacked the church.

It looked like it took all her strength to lift her arm. She placed it on my cheek. “M-May you... have God’s… blessing…” Her hand fell limp.

Solo always told me that boys don’t cry. I’m not sure I succeeded.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> -Author’s Note-
> 
> Writing 6 year old Duo just plain made me depressed. I felt like such a bitch making his life suck so much. No kid should live like that. :(  
> (Yes, yes, I know he’s a fictional character in a fictional story. Stop looking at me like that!)
> 
> Writing Solo’s and Duo’s lines were harder than I expected. Kept having to say them out loud to hear how they sounded and thus could only really work on this when I was by myself to keep from making people think I was crazy.
> 
> If it somehow wasn’t clear, yes, Father Maxwell and his assistant totally killed off Solo and his entire clan. Also, I totally feel evil for having one of Duo’s families kill the other, but I just couldn’t help myself.
> 
> I really hate the death scenes in this chapter. I have a complete lack of ability to write angst and the death scenes just seemed to fall flat. Sorry. :(
> 
> Timeline: Episode Zero (manga)


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **AN: Back to Heero POV**

It was actually pretty common (more common than most vampires would be willing to admit) that the longer a vampire lived, the more likely they were to pick up a few odd… hobbies. My father was no exception to this. One of his most whispered about hobbies was what was referred to as his “human zoo”. Now, that was a bit of a misnomer. My father didn’t go around locking humans away in cages. It was more of a compound, such as a small self contained city, and the humans were able to enter and leave at will. There were actually quite a number of them scattered about the Earth Sphere, but the compounds weren’t just for any human, they were only for the truly unique.

During my father’s travels around Earth and the colonies tending to his royal duties, any time he came across a human who was particularly interesting or unusual, he would offer them living accommodations at one of his compounds. Not only that, but they would pretty much have their every wish provided to them. The only requirement was that they would occasionally have to visit my father at his leisure to discuss any projects, activities, or plans they had been working on, or give a display of whatever physical feat they had done to catch my father’s eye.

For the most part, I had simply ignored the existence of any of my father’s more eccentric hobbies, but I found myself now being quite thankful for this particular one. I remembered my father being rather enamoured with this one particular human, who seemed to also be enamoured of the ability to use the royal coffers to fund any research or project he wanted to do. So now I found myself heading to one of my father’s compounds located on the L1 colony to meet with the strange human who simply went by the name Doctor J.

* * *

The car dropped me off outside the nondescript house at the edge of what all the other human residents of L1 thought was simply a high class gated community. I had only been here once before, and the house looked as lived in as the last time, that being not at all.

I made my way through to the “basement” door and entered the discrete elevator. Most of the humans in my father’s “collection” were happy enough with simple, normal houses and every expense paid, but Doctor J had wants just as unique as the man himself. He had requested a laboratory to be built to his specifications. He compromised on the above ground house when it was pointed out that a facility style structure would stand out and gain unnecessary attention when located in a gated community.

The elevator door opened with a light ding noise and I stepped out into the brightly lit, long metal hallway. I really hoped I could find the old man in what was considered the main lab because I had seen floorplans of this place when it was first being built and it was vast. I really had no idea how much of the sub-colony space was actually used, but I knew that it was a winding, maze-like structure, allowing for outside workers access to colony-specific pipes, wiring, and other structural things while not requiring access into the lab itself. I simply hoped the place hadn’t been remodeled or had any additions since the time I saw the plans.

The door to what had been on my previous visit and hopefully still was the main lab slid open with a quiet whoosh sound and I stepped into the room. There were mechanical parts and papers scattered about the room on every available surface. Near the center of the room, I saw Doctor J, his back facing me, slightly hunched over as his attention was focused on whatever was on the table in front of him. I stepped farther into the room; the door shut with a slight snik noise, making Doctor J straighten and turn to face me.

“Ah, this must be it then. You’re here to inform me that with your father’s passing, my funding has been cut?” His metallic left arm, which was some sort of contraption that looked like it had been stolen straight from a child’s arcade claw game, made a snapping motion.

“No. I’m here because I think you can help me.”

* * *

_~Years Later~_

* * *

I sat in Wing’s cockpit waiting on the sound signifying imminent atmosphere entry when I heard another noise. I glanced at the control panels, currently displaying data being rerouted from the external shuttle into Wing’s computer, and saw that it was a proximity alarm.

I pressed a few keys and the visual display honed in on the craft. It appeared to be a human civilian shuttle. I readied my weapons systems. The Alliance wasn’t much for subtlety and stealth, but I wanted to be ready in case the shuttle turned out not to be what it appeared. Also, it was an unfortunate fact, but I also wanted to be prepared in case the shuttle decided to take unwanted interest in my shuttle and needed to be taken care of.

The shuttle had yet to open a comm channel to ask why I was not on a registered flight plan, and I was just about to relax when I heard yet another proximity alarm. I glanced at the readout. I muttered a quiet “Damn it.” It was a small Alliance carrier, probably carrying two to three mobile suits.

I disengaged the external shuttle, freeing Wing’s flight mode. There was no more need for cover with the Alliance already onto me, and I needed the mobility if I was to face Alliance mobile suits. The carrier deployed a suit. I was surprised to note it was a Leo. Why engage in an aerial battle with a ground type mobile suit? I dodged the Leo’s first shot, but I underestimated the enemy pilot. They responded with more speed than I anticipated and the second shot clipped the left side of Wing, causing the drive engine on that side to malfunction. The carrier deployed two more suits, Aries models this time, and I knew I would have to depend on firepower more than mobility to win this battle. I pushed the lever and initiated Wing’s transformation from flight mode into mobile suit mode.

The Aries suits flew an intercept course and opened fire. I could feel the slight shudder through my Gundam at the impact of rockets and could hear them rain down bullets uselessly against Wing; the staccato sound muffled by my Gundam’s exterior. I turned Wing to face the enemy suits, the controls far more unwieldy in suit mode than flight mode, and took aim with my buster rifle.

I pressed the button to fire. The thick yellow-orange beam shot out; electricity flicking into lightning around the blast. The beam engulfed both Aries suits at once. The firepower of the buster rifle was amazing. It was at that moment that I felt a wave of elation as the full realisation hit me. With the help of Wing, I could make a stand against Treize. I found myself laughing due to the anticipation but cut myself short; there was one more suit to deal with.

My weapons system locked onto the Leo and I fired a second shot, but once again the Leo pilot proved their skill with a swift dodge of the beam. The Leo then pulled a beam saber and charged me. I stopped the Leo’s attack by gripping its wrist with Wing’s hand, but realised too late that the move was a feint. The Leo suit locked around Wing, restricting movement.

I jerked the controls, hearing the straining gears fight against the resistance, but could not budge the Leo. There was nothing I could do at the moment. I would just have to wait and see if an opportunity arose.

A glance at the display and I saw that I was on course to crash in a body of water. I watched as the water loomed ever closer, and I braced myself. The impact was jarring. I was sure that if I had been a mere human I would have never survived. I fought the edges of unconsciousness, and checked the displays. I was in luck. The impact with the water had shook loose the Leo. I hit the hatch release button and undid my harness as water gushed in from the widening opening and swirled around me.

I swam through the hatch and surveyed my surroundings. I was mildly disoriented. I couldn’t even tell which way was up; probably an unfortunate result of the harsh impact. Not being able to sense which way was up didn’t stop me. Gravity was sure to pull my Gundam down, so I just swam in the opposing direction.

I could feel myself tire and my will began to slip. I sensed the fuzzy greyness of unconsciousness encroach again and was no longer able to fight it. My thoughts and senses faded to black as the disrupted sediment whirled in the eddies around me.

* * *

When I regained consciousness I found myself on a beach. I was not alone. I jerked away from the young human girl and tried to hide my face. I could not have my image reported to any authorities. I didn’t want to warn Treize of my involvement too soon.

She seemed to be trying to calm me down, and I heard her mention calling an ambulance just before I heard the sirens of its arrival. There were too many potential witnesses. I had to get away.

I charged toward the EMTs and knocked them out of my way as I headed to the ambulance. I gripped the top of the ambulance as I jumped and shoved both legs through the ambulance side window. The driver seemed frozen in startlement and I wasted no time in shoving him out the opposing door. I gripped the steering wheel, shifted the ambulance into drive, and made my escape.

* * *

Doctor J was somewhat more familiar with human everyday life than I was and he had coached me on ways to blend in as a human of my apparent age. He informed me that I appeared to be a human in his young teens and that other humans of that age would be in schools. So I wasted no time in enrolling myself at a nearby boarding school to develop a cover.

The next morning I was introduced to a bevy of humans. They all were so young, barely more than children. I was momentarily worried if I would even be able to handle blending in with the rest of them. I took a seat and pretended to take notes on the following lecture.

* * *

It was during one of the between-class breaks that I was approached by a gaggle of girls. The one in the lead I recognised as being the girl from the previous evening. She handed me an envelope, saying it was an invitation to a birthday party.

Does she recognise me as the boy who washed ashore yesterday? Does she realise the significance? If she did she could be a liability.

But then again, if she knew who… what I was, would she do something as trivial as invite me to a birthday party?

I tore up the invitation. I had to focus on my mission. I had to focus on stopping Treize. The celebration of the anniversary of yet another human child coming into this world was not worth my time.

I had to prevent this girl from meddling further into my affairs though. If she became a liability I would have to end her existence. I figured threatening her with just such an occurrence would prevent her further involvement.

I walked closer to her, close enough that the rest of the girls would not overhear.

“I’ll kill you.”

* * *

I made just enough of a show at the beginning of equestrian class that no one would question my lack of attendance later before finding an unobserved section of the school and scaling the wall to break into a student’s dorm room. I wanted to use an internet connection unaffiliated with myself just as an extra precaution, though I was sure they would not be able to trace me.

I used the computer I found in the room to first hack into the Alliance systems, searching for anything I could use. I had to stop the Alliance from getting their hands on Wing, even if I had to resort to destroying my Gundam. I found something that would fit the bill, and then went on to my next task, hacking the school systems.

Once I had all my records cleared as Paid, I turned off the computer and made sure everything was as it was when I arrived. I then left the room and made my way to the Alliance military port to obtain the torpedoes I had picked out just moments before.

* * *

After locating the torpedoes and getting them ready, I then planted bombs around the military port. Activating the bombs would cause chaos and keep the personnel busy, preventing them from interrupting me.

As I was programming the target into the torpedoes, I heard someone call my name. I turned to find the girl Relena once again being where she shouldn’t be. I had thought my warning would have been enough, but it seems this human was lacking in the survival instincts department.

I didn’t particularly want to kill the young naive human, but this had gone far enough. She was now getting in the way of what I needed to do. I drew my Beretta handgun and aimed it at her.

I was just about to pull the trigger when I heard a gunshot. Even with my reaction time, I was only able to dodge enough to get hit in the arm instead of some place more vital. The bullet stung far more than a bullet should, but that couldn’t be. My attacker had to be a random Alliance that just happened upon the scene in the midst of the chaos and shot me, but that didn’t explain the pain. It stung like silver. No Alliance would use silver bullets, would they?

I looked over at my attacker. That certainly wasn’t any Alliance uniform. It almost resembled a priest habit. Shit. Could it be a hunter? That would just top off my bad luck. The Alliance detects my shuttle on entry, my Gundam gets sunk into the ocean, I have a meddlesome human following me, and a hunter shows up.

I reach for my handgun which I had dropped during the attack, only to get shot again. Though it was at this point that the human girl surprised me. She jumped between the hunter and I, blocking any further shots. Then she proceeded to wrap my injuries to try to stop the bleeding.

I was then surprised even further, Wing broke the surface of the water, being towed by another mobile suit. I didn’t recognise the suit with Wing, but at this point it didn’t matter; I couldn’t let Wing fall into any enemy hands no matter who they were.

I leapt onto the readied torpedoes. The hunter started to fire upon me again. I slammed my fist into the startup key for the torpedoes and let them fly. I saw them arc towards Wing as I fell through the air behind them. I could feel the blood loss hitting me hard. I should have fed while at the boarding school before this mission, but I had incorrectly assumed this would be an easy task. I heard the impact of the torpedoes as I once again fell into the realm of the unconscious.

* * *

I awoke to find myself restrained. A discrete glance around and I could tell I was in the Alliance No. 3 Medical Facility. I couldn’t decide what was worse, that I had been captured by the Alliance or that I was in a _human_ hospital.

The existence of vampires was still a staunchly kept secret, and something that under medical evaluation could be discovered. It wasn’t often for vampires to end up in the hospital but still many hospitals had one or two vampires on staff secretly to help make unfortunate records “disappear” in the case of a vampire requiring hospital stay. I only hoped there was one here, because I’d have my hands full with simply trying to escape and wouldn’t be able to deal with my own records.

I pulled on the restraints with all my strength. The restraints were strong but I was pretty sure I would be able to break them if needed, but then I would still be in a locked and monitored room. I was starting to worry I wouldn’t be able to get free when there was a change on one of the nearby monitors. It was the hunter! Did he come here to finish the job?

He was talking into the monitor to allow me to read his lips. I ignored most of his babble until I caught him say he’d help break me out. He came to help me? Why would a hunter help a vampire? Maybe he wasn’t a hunter? But then, why would he use silver bullets? Silver bullets certainly weren’t standard equipment. Whether he was a hunter or not, if he was set on helping me escape, he seemed to be my only option.

I didn’t have to wait long before the wall next to me exploded inward; the maybe-hunter being revealed as the dust settled. I jerked my wrist free from the restraint as he ran over. I had the maybe-hunter give me his knife to remove the rest of the restraints and we quickly left the way he entered.

I was following him through the hallways, assuming that since he got in, he knew the way out, but as we neared a junction in the hallway, instead of making a turn, I saw him make a movement out of the corner of my eye. When I turned to see what he was doing, I saw him toss a grenade at the wall in front of us. I dove to the ground right alongside him, then quickly back up and running as soon as the explosion happened.

I ran to the opening and jumped out. I was astonished to see the maybe-hunter do the same. We were at least 50 storeys up. What was he doing? Humans can’t survive a jump that high. The maybe-hunter held up a stick that turned out to be some electric helicopter type contraption to slow his fall. It wasn’t until I registered the humans calling me that I remembered I needed to at least attempt to break my fall. Couldn’t let them see I could handle a 50 storey fall, no problem.

The landing was a bit rough but nothing I couldn’t handle. The maybe-hunter slowly descended beside me. I didn’t know if I could trust him, but he did help me out. I decided to continue following him when a boat came by to pick him up.

* * *

We ended up on a salvage vessel. The crew bustled about, some greeting the maybe-hunter as he passed, but seemed to simply ignore my presence. I learned that the maybe-hunter went by the name Duo, and as I observed him I was more and more sure that he wasn’t a hunter. I started to think he wasn’t even aware I was a vampire, but the more sure I became, the more confused I became by the silver bullets.

I heard a crewman yell, “We’ve located it!” Duo became excited at this proclamation and yelled back that he would man the winch. It wasn’t too much longer before a suit was brought up. It was the same suit I had seen with Wing before. As I got a closer look at it, I could tell that it greatly resembled mine. That and the fact that it had survived the torpedo blast from before made me sure that this suit was a Gundam as well. I eyed Duo. What was he doing with a Gundam? The man just grew more and more confusing.

After unhooking the black suit, the winch cables were lowered once again. I took that time to actually look at Duo. I had been so distracted earlier in trying to decide if he was a hunter and going to attempt to kill me or not I hadn’t really looked at the man himself. He wore an outfit that was all black except for a white undershirt that folded up at the sleeves and peaked through at his collar, greatly resembling a priest’s collar. He had a thin, lithe figure, and a very striking braid of chestnut hair that reached down to mid-thigh. From my angle, I could just barely make out his eyes. They were an unusual violet color that was currently sparkling with enthusiasm as he focused on his current task.

I heard a splashing noise and looked over to see what was being hoisted out of the water now. I watched as rivulets of water cascaded off Wing as she was slowly being raised from the ocean.

* * *

Duo offered to have the ship’s engineers repair Wing along with his suit but I didn’t feel comfortable letting people I was unfamiliar with near my Gundam. I opened the mechanic’s panel, bringing out the diagnostic tool and started a scan. Reviewing the results showed that the repairs needed weren’t too bad, but I would require a few replacement parts. I started to work on repairing what I could.

A few hours into my repairs I heard a noise from the cockpit. I jogged over and jumped into the pilot’s seat, quickly bringing up the display. I had a mission. Wing wasn’t even repaired yet, how was I suppose to pull off a mission? An image of the black mobile suit flash through my mind and I suddenly had a plan.

* * *

I worked late into the night. The engineers working on Duo’s suit slowly retired one by one to their rooms leaving only Duo and I remaining. I kept waiting on him to leave for the night as well but the longer I waited, the less that seemed likely.

Eventually I noticed a general lack of sound coming from the other side of the hangar. I quietly made my way over. I found Duo face-planted next to an open plating of his Gundam, obviously fallen asleep mid-repair. I quietly got to work taking the parts I’d need to repair Wing from his mobile suit. I hoped he wouldn’t wake until I was done.

I could feel that it was a few hours before dawn by the time I finished repairing Wing. I was just about to hop in and head for my mission when I paused. I glanced back in the direction that I knew Duo was in, even though he was hidden by the black mobile suit at this angle.

I slowly made my way over to his side of the hangar once again, and worked my way around to where he was. I watched him, half cross-legged sitting and half slumped forward against the mobile suit. His breathing was the slow, steady breaths of deep sleep. He had slightly drooled against the Gundanium plating.

I inched closer. Paying close attention to his breathing or any other signs of him waking. I sat behind him and slowly slid one hand between him and the Gundam. I manoeuvered him to leaning against me. I tilted his head to the side, and pushed down the priest-like collar, revealing a smooth expanse of creamy skin. I leaned forward and as gently as I could, sank my fangs into that tantalising skin.

I reveled in the sweet warmth I drank from Duo. It seemed vaguely familiar, but I eventually gave up trying to place why. I had to focus more on restraint. It had been far too long since I had last fed, and with losing blood on top of that, it was difficult to not be greedy, but I managed. Duo would awaken lightheaded and feeling weak, but I had avoided drinking until his death.

I licked the small puncture wounds to trigger the accelerated healing. At this point Duo would be too out of it, so I had no fear of awakening him. I moved myself into a crouch, looped one arm under his legs, and lifted him up. He was lighter than I expected, even considering the lithe form. I carried Duo over to a clear, flat surface and laid him down. I then rushed over to Wing’s cockpit and dug out the blanket from my emergency supply, bringing it back to where I had laid Duo to rest. I draped the blanket over him, pulling it up to his chin. It wouldn’t be as comfortable as a bed by far, but would certainly be an improvement over his half hunched against a Gundam sleep from before.

I then made my way over to Wing and started my pre-flight checks. I had a mission to perform.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> -Author’s Note-
> 
> And thus, here is the next installment of this horribly clichéd tripe. Hope you love my guilty pleasure as much as I do. <3
> 
> I don’t know handguns in the slightest. I actually did a bit of a Google search and compared pictures and kinda guessed on a manufacturer based on similarities. I don’t know if Heero’s gun even is a real model in the first place, but if I got it wrong, please tell me. (As a sidenote, I think Duo’s gun is a Browning.)
> 
> Timeline: Episode 1-4


	4. Chapter 4

It wasn’t difficult to sneak past the hall monitor and make my way into the moonlit night. I had chosen a school just on the borders of a small city this time so I wouldn’t have to risk feeding in such a confined location as a boarding school. I wasn’t familiar with this city, but the light pollution seemed greater in an area to the south, so I headed that direction.

It didn’t take me long to reach the city’s nightlife district. The bass from the clubs thrummed the artificial heartbeat of the city. The Hunger burned within me.

I wandered the district for awhile, familiarising myself with the more populated establishments. It was as I was making my second pass that my prey came to me.

“Hey, cutie!” I turned at the call to see two girls standing behind me. One had artfully wavy blonde hair that flowed past her shoulders and was wearing a metallic pink dress that barely reached mid-thigh and looked like it had been painted on. It had a large flower-shaped cut out centered on her upper hip that spanned from her navel to her back. The other girl had vaguely Asian features and short black hair styled in an asymmetrical cut that only reached her ear on the left but swept past her chin on the right. She was wearing a black dress that had fabric straps designed like a collar and more straps crisscrossing across her collar bones. Just above her breasts the straps connected with fabric that billowed downward, drooping to just above her navel, granting the bare minimum of modesty.

The one wearing metallic pink continued to address me. “Looks like you’re here by yourself. It’d be such a shame for a cutie like you to be lonely.” Her companion simply giggled.

“You may accompany me if you wish,” I said before turning and starting to head off. I could hear the two girls following me. I lead them to an alley I had noted on my first pass through the district. I had figured the girls would hesitate on following me into the dim, deserted space, but they continued. Their giggling increased the deeper into the alley we went.

They even followed me around a corner of the alley, ending up in a location where not even a random passerby could chance seeing us. I turned to them and saw that the one with short black hair was just behind me and coming closer. She actually pressed her body against mine, pinning me against the wall and latched her lips onto mine. In my surprise I barely even heard the blonde giggle and mutter, “I’ve never fucked someone in an alley before.” She then continued a bit louder, “Hey! Aiko! Don’t hog the hottie!”

The girl kissing me backed off and I decided to stop this before the blonde could make her move. “Hey,” I called lightly, but it was enough to cause both girls to make eye contact with me. I felt the slight surge of power as I invoked a glamour, “You will be still and quiet.” Their eyes glazed over and they both simply stood there staring at me.

I made a quick glance around, to double check there were no witnesses before closing the distance between the short-haired girl and myself once again. My fangs pierced the delicate skin just above the swatch of cloth shaped like a collar. I drank of her life. Her pulse thrummed a steady beat against my lips as the city’s pulse thrummed in the air around me.

I stopped before the point of causing her to lose consciousness and then moved onto the blonde. When I was finished, I stepped back enough to make eye contact with both girls at once. I once again invoked a glamour. “You will go back to where we met, and you will forget ever meeting me.”

I watched as both girls quietly shambled off, back towards the main road. I found myself in a state of introspection. The Hunger’s demand had been silenced, so why didn’t I feel sated?

* * *

I was in my dorm room researching nearby OZ locations in preparation for my next mission when I heard the door open. I glanced up to note that it was only Duo. He had been acting like we were friends, and it had only gotten worse when we did a mission together. That is, if by together you mean we both knew we were going after the same target, both showed up at roughly the same time, and both completed the mission. He had even tried to make a game of it.

Duo fell backwards onto my bed before rolling onto his stomach to face me, chin propped up by his palms. “Did I mention how much of a dick move that was, pretending like you were gonna shoot me instead of just ya know, warnin’ me ‘bout the Leo behind me?” My eyes flicked to him before settling back on my laptop screen. The words were antagonistic but his tone and expression were both what I could only call “deviously amused”.

I pretended to ignore him, and as usual, he pretended to ignore me pretending to ignore him. “Woulda never guessed Mr. Anti-Social had a sense of humor though. You should definitely use it more often.”

He rolled onto his back again. His braid slid off the bed, making a light thwump noise on the carpeted floor. “Have the b-ball guys been buggin’ ya too? They keep tryin’ ta get me to join the team. Been having trouble brushing ‘em off. Can’t exactly say ‘Sorry, I’m only gonna be in this school ‘til I’ve wiped out too many ozzies in the area, then I gotta skedaddle.’” He chuckled. “Could ya imagine having to call in to miss practice? ‘Sorry, guys. Can’t make it today. Gotta go all “IT’S A GUNDAM!” on some ozzie ass.’”

“Duo, you’re not even making sense.” I almost winced when I remembered I was suppose to be pretending to ignore him.

“Ah, come on. Don’t tell me you haven’t noticed that people who are all yellin’ ‘bout there bein’ a Gundam are generally the first to get creamed.” He grinned jovially but his eyes had a slightly evil glint in them. I merely rolled my eyes and then internally chided myself for once again giving him some form of response.

* * *

Duo had been once again demonstrating his ability to carry on a mostly one-sided conversation for hours on end while I did my best to be oblivious towards him until I finally noticed that he was being unusually quiet. I glanced up from my computer screen and saw he seemed to be asleep on my bed. He had rolled onto his side and slightly curled inward. His braid still hung half off the bed.

I stood and walked the few paces to the bed. Sure enough, he had fallen asleep. Can’t the guy go sleep in his own bed? I was just about to turn back to my desk when my eyes slid from his sleeping face to a few inches lower. His head was rested flat against the bed, making his neck stretch in an almost invitation.

I felt an influx of something. It was almost like the Hunger, and yet not. This was more of an urge whereas the Hunger was a demand. I had fed just the night before. I didn’t expect the Hunger to return for at least a week or two at the earliest. So what was this feeling?

I knelt by the bed. I moved my face near that alluring expanse of skin. I paused for only a moment to really consider what I was doing, this would be the first time I would feed without the demand of the Hunger. Then I caught the scent and my mind lost that train of thought. My face was a mere inch from Duo’s throat and I breathed deep. I nearly melted at the alluring aroma and I felt a spike of the strange feeling that was similar to and yet not Hunger. I could only assume it wasn’t the Hunger but Duo himself that was causing this urge.

I opened my mouth and once again sank my fangs into his tender flesh. His nose wrinkled and I felt a thread of either fear or excitement, I wasn’t entirely sure, at the prospect of him waking and my being discovered until my fang’s natural analgesic kicked in and his face relaxed once again. When the first drops of crimson liquid hit my tongue I nearly moaned. A more luscious taste I had never before experienced. I must have been too far under the effects of the Hunger the first time to notice, but I had no such distraction this time. I took my time and drank slowly, savoring every moment. The exquisite taste of the flowing liquid on my tongue while my nostrils filled with Duo’s tantalizing scent. I was in heaven.

I forced myself to stop long before I truly wanted to and caressed the puncture marks with my tongue to induce healing. I couldn’t help myself and found myself nuzzling Duo’s neck to get one last experience with his captivating fragrance. It was that action that eventually awoke him. I quickly jumped to my feet, putting distance between us. He turned his upper half to face me and blinked a sleepy-eyed look at me. “Ro?”

I decided to try to act natural until I knew exactly what he was aware of. “You are going to get cold if you sleep like that.”

“Oh… k…” He yawned whiled using one foot and then the other to kick his boots off his feet. I gave an internal sigh of relief. It seemed I had no explanations I had to come up with.

I helped him manoeuver the blanket from underneath him and pulled it up to cover him. He mumbled a quiet “Night, Ro” before curling back up to fall asleep. I shook my head at the now blanket pile with just a braid tip sticking out as I headed back to sit at my desk.

I watched him sleep while in quiet contemplation. The sun reached her rosy fingers over the horizon and I had yet to figure out just what the hell that new urge was.

* * *

I heard a sound emit from my computer. The noise awoke Duo and he shot upright in the bed, then groaned and laid back down. “Did we have a wild party last night that I forgot about?”

A few key presses later and I was reviewing the new mission I had received. It didn’t need to be carried out right away, so I had ample time to prepare. I was just about to close the window when I saw the additional information at the bottom. ‘Pilot 02 assigned same mission. Cooperation suggested. - J’

“We have a mission.”

Duo turned startled eyes my way. “ _We_?”

“Stay in bed. I’ll get you some food and then we can review the mission.”

“Breakfast in bed! Ah, Heero, you certainly know how to treat a guy!” He shot me a wink. With my back facing him, I rolled my eyes and left the room.

* * *

When I returned, I discovered that Duo had ignored my command to stay in bed. He was on my bed at that moment, but he was sitting cross-legged with his laptop, which hadn’t been in the room before, sitting in front of him.

I dropped the plastic bag of food on the bed next to him and placed the drink on the nightstand. “Fuck yeah! Food!” He started digging through the bag and pulled out the white styrofoam container. He paused upon opening it. “What the hell is this?” He eyed the food distrustfully and poked at it with his plastic fork.

“Sausage and spinach quiche.”

“What the fuck’s a quiche?”

“A type of baked egg dish.”

“So you got me sausage and eggs and slimy green stuff all mixed up? Couldn’t you just get me regular sausage and eggs?”

“Spinach is not ‘slimy’.”

He took the cup from the nightstand, lifted the travel lid and peeked inside. He followed that with a tentative sip of the beverage. “Hey! OJ!” He sent a smile my way and said in a kidding tone, “Seems you can do at least one thing normal.”

He went back to the quiche and started to pick the spinach out of it.¹ “Duo, eat the spinach too.”

“Fiiiine. But if I die it’s your fault.” He took a bite. “Oh! Thish ish acshually good.” He took another bite and turned back to his laptop. “Sho, thish misshion ish for a shupply warehoushe.”

“Duo, be quiet and eat.” I brought up the mission specs on my own computer. The target was a storage warehouse where OZ staged supply shipments before sending them to their bases located on the colonies. The mission consisted of two phases. Phase 1 - Break into the base, locate the non-networked computer that stored the shipping manifests, and download the list of OZ shipping destinations to be compared to a list of currently known OZ bases. Phase 2 - Destroy the location, thus hampering OZ’s ability to get supplies to their bases in space.

I muttered a quiet, “Mission accepted.”

* * *

It was a few hours later when Duo stood from the bed and stretched. “Heero, buddy, it’s a warm, sunny Saturday morning. We should go out and catch some rays.” He waited a moment for a response I wasn’t going to give him. “Ya don’t gotta be social or anything. You can even bring your laptop and keep staring some more at that floorplan I’m sure you had every detail memorised two hours ago, but ya gotta put in some outdoorsy facetime or the other students will think you’re weird, and weird would mean you stand out. Ya don’t wanna stand out now do ya?”

I contemplated his argument. I was lacking the knowledge of teenage humans to be able to refute his statement, so I grunted an assent, shut and picked up my laptop, and prepared to follow him out.

“Alright!”

* * *

Duo, to his delight, had discovered there were three guys over at the courts more than willing to let another join in and quickly started up a friendly 2 on 2 game of basketball. I sat on a grassy slope nearby, keeping the basketball courts in my line of sight.

I lifted the laptop lid but didn’t return to reviewing the mission right away. Instead I took a moment to observe my new mission partner.

Duo was… Duo was unlike any human I had ever met before. He had an exuberance, a vibrancy of life that was unusual even for a human. I watched as he laughed and joked with the other students he was playing with. Students who, for all I knew, he had just met.

I watched as his braid slithered and danced behind him, almost as if it had a life of its own. I laughed quietly to myself at the thought. Duo had such an abundance of life he was even granting life to inanimate objects.

Duo caught me watching him and gave me an animated wave before focusing back on the game.

* * *

It took us a few days to prepare, but we were as ready as we were going to get. I tried to imitate a casual stroll as I headed to the wooded section of the school grounds. Duo followed quietly behind me.

The acres of dense woods were a major selling point for the school. The school had been established long before the local town grew into a city and the combination of large tracts of natural scenery with the nearness of city life was something not many boarding schools could claim. Of course, if they knew how much the dense foliage helped hide a Gundam, thus increasing the chance that ‘evil terrorist’ Gundam pilots would become part of their student base, they would probably rethink the pros of keeping the wooded lands.

It didn’t take us long to get to the motorcycle that Duo had ‘acquired’ for us two days prior. I pulled back the camouflage tarp and tossed him a helmet before pulling on my own. I sat on the bike and started up the engine as he clambered on behind me. He wrapped his arms around my waist for stability as I shifted gears and went full throttle.

* * *

Duo was jumping off the motorcycle before I even had it fully stopped and running to the camouflaged lump that was Deathscythe. He began Deathscythe’s startup as I made my way over to Wing to do the same. Duo gently wrapped Deathscythe’s Gundanium fingers around the motorcycle. We were going to need it later. I moved the lever to trigger Wing’s shift from a mobile suit to flight mode. Duo used Deathscythe’s free hand to grab onto Wing’s ‘foot’ and activated the Hyper Jammers to hide Deathscythe and reduce our overall visibility. I entered in the coordinates for the OZ supply warehouse and we set off.

* * *

We landed miles away from the base to prevent detection. We both scrambled from our Gundams and once again mounted the motorcycle to trek the last few miles to the base. We paused in the underbrush just outside the base’s perimeter fence. Duo handed me a slim pair of binoculars.

I had previously hacked into the base’s computers and now Duo and I were aided with the knowledge of the guard changes, routes, and relative circuit frequencies. We just needed to find out exactly where they were on their circuits at that moment so we could judge the best time to enter the base.

I whispered quietly to Duo, “Prepare to enter on my mark.” He nodded and I waited for the guard on the route we had labeled Route C to make another pass. I saw the OZ uniformed man round a corner and scan his pass-key to enter a door and continue on his guard route. I noted the angle of the outside camera. “Mark.”

Duo burst into action, quickly cutting through the chain-link fence enough so the two of us could squeeze through. We made a half-crouched running dash to the side of a building and plastered ourselves against it, waiting for the camera to finish its pan and face away from the door again.

When the door was once again in a surveillance blind spot, Duo pulled an object from his backpack. It was a small black box. Attached to the box by a twisted band of wires was a thin plastic card with a magnetic strip. He activated the box and ran the card through the pass-key scanner. A red light lit up on the top of the box and he stared at it fixedly.

I kept my eyes trained to the camera, ready to warn him if we needed to back off. I started a quiet countdown. “10...9...8-”

“Got it!” My eyes flicked to him and I saw the light on the box was now green, and he quickly slid the card through the reader. The door gave off a quiet click and we both rushed through the opening.

I took point and started to lead us as Duo followed behind me. I kept a mental countdown for the guard rotations as we quietly slipped through the halls. Just about halfway to our destination I held up my closed fist signalling for Duo to stop. I then pointed to a door to our left and he quietly obeyed, slipping past the door. I squeezed into the small supply closet with him and quietly shut the door behind us.

For minutes the only sound that could be heard was our muted breaths in the dark closet but eventually I heard the sharp staccato of boots on the hard linoleum floor as a guard made his rounds. The noise slowly faded as the guard passed and I once again took point as we continued to our destination.

* * *

When we reached the database room, Duo quickly split off, heading to the computer while I stayed by the door. He had originally argued this part of the plan with me, saying that if a guard did happen to pass by while we were in the room that he would have the better chance of thinking on his feet and trying to talk the guard into believing he was meant to be there. Or failing that, he believed he was better at distracting the guard from what was going on in the room and leading him on a chase, thus allowing me to complete the mission. While I didn’t have any doubts he would be better at those tasks than me, I had a different plan to deal with any unfortunate guards. I simply couldn’t tell him though.

I faintly heard approaching footsteps and glanced back at Duo. He had already located the information pertaining to OZ’s bases, but the file copy was going to take too long. The guard would have to be dealt with.

I quietly slipped out of the room and moved to stand just out of line of sight around a turn in the hallway. The guard rounded the corner and let out a startled “What the-” before the glamour hit. His eyes glazed over and his face adopted a blank expression.

“You will continue on your guard route and you will not notice or remember anything out of the ordinary happening.”

The guard continued his path down the hallway, passing the database door without any acknowledgment of it being open and occupied. I silently reentered the room to check on Duo’s progress.

Just a few minutes after I sent the guard on his way, Duo finished with copying the information. According to my mental countdown, if we left just then, we’d be able to make the whole distance without having to dodge any guards.

* * *

We were just nearing the supply closet we hid in earlier when the door suddenly swung open and surprised us. A man and woman both froze in startlement at the unexpected sight of two boys in the base. The analytical part of my brain had enough time to note their flushed appearances and rumpled uniforms before I responded to the threat.

Two gunshots rang out, my own followed by Duo’s not even a second later. The man slumped to the ground with two bullet holes in his forehead. Unfortunately the woman was just slightly farther back in the closet, giving neither Duo nor I a good shot. She quickly jumped back even more into the small cover provided by the wall. Duo and I both sprinted forward but we were too late. The woman had already grabbed a walkie talkie and radioed in the presence of intruders.

Duo already knew what to do and we simultaneously turned to start a headlong sprint to the exit.

* * *

We could hear the stampeding echoes of incoming guards as we neared the exit. Duo barreled into the door, hitting the door release bar, and dove into a crouch just outside the door. He quickly sighted down his pistol. I growled to myself slightly. He should have let me take point, but now was not the time to argue. He motioned me forward, though I was already following him through the door anyways. He stood and we turned and started to sprint toward where the gap in the fence was located.

We were just short of the fence when the Leos arrived. One already aiming a launcher in our direction. My eyes widened when it actually fired. My brain quickly calculated the trajectory. It would be off slightly, the explosion not necessarily being fatal, but it would still be a risk. It was then that I felt something slam into me, knocking me to the ground.

Bits of rock, dirt and other shrapnel shot through the air as the world exploded. It was mere seconds before the chaos settled, leaving behind a thick dust in the air and a resounding ringing noise in my ear.

I felt pinned beneath something and looked to see what it was. Duo. Duo had covered me with his own body for protection. Why? I shook my head, trying to gather my thoughts. Now was not the time.

I quickly eyed Duo’s body. I didn’t see any injuries. I gripped his shoulders and shook him gently. He looked up at me, blinking groggily. His eyes seemed out of focus. Concussion? There was a cut just over his left eye that was already bleeding profusely as head wounds were wont to do. I feared a distracting spike of Hunger but luckily it remained dormant.

Duo tried to stand on his own but wobbled precariously until I caught him. He mumbled out a slightly slurred, “I got this, Ro. You go on ahead.”

I just situated one of his arms over my shoulders so I could help support him.

“Ro, I’m just gonna slow ya down.”

I didn’t have time for this. I turned my head toward him and invoked a glamour. “Shut up and let me help you.”

He complied with a grumbled, “Sure. Fine. Whatever.” I nearly dropped him. The glamour didn’t take hold? Focus. Think about it later. I supported him as we quickly made the rest of the way to the fence through the cover of the agitated dust.

One of the Leos was broadcasting a rant about damn Privates who attack their own damn bases while I helped him navigate through the hole in the fence. We made our way to the motorcycle and slipped into the forest once again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ~Omake Theater~
> 
> I faintly heard approaching footsteps and glanced back at Duo. He had already located the information pertaining to OZ’s bases, but the file copy was going to take too long. The guard would have to be dealt with.
> 
> The guard rounded the corner and let out a startled, “What the!” He quickly jogged over and noticed Duo in the database room. “Hey! I don’t recognise you! Let me see your identification.” 
> 
> I waved my hand. “You don’t need to see our identification.”
> 
> He mumbled a quiet, “I don’t need to see your identification.”
> 
> I waved my hand again. “These aren’t the Gundam pilots you’re looking for.”
> 
> “These aren’t the Gundam pilots we’re looking for.”
> 
> “Move along.”
> 
> The guard shuffled off quietly down the hallway.
> 
> * * *
> 
> -Author’s Note-
> 
> The best part about purposely setting out to write clichéd tripe is I can make it as clichéd as I want. :D
> 
> [1] I would like to clarify that Duo isn’t being picky per se. He just has a distrust of food he doesn’t recognise, especially food the color of mold. I can’t imagine someone who spent years living on the streets would be picky about food, but they would probably be wary about things that could make them sick. So, in my head, things like blue cheese would freak him out. (Or it could just be my extremely picky self bleeding into the characters with a thin veneer of rationalization on top. *shrug*)
> 
> Back to having real dialogue! ^-^ (Well, as dialogue-y as Heero can be :P) The last two chapters I was trying to make as close as possible to the episodes that any dialogue probably would have been direct quotes, and I felt that was a bit overkill. (Though, the things Duo says to Heero get a slant towards the ironic when placed in this context. “Why don’t you give up and stop _pretending_ to be human?” “Well excuse me for being a mere mortal!” :3)
> 
> The New Edwards fiasco has already happened “offscreen”. I personally just don’t like that entire plot line (how did Wufei know it was a trick when Mr. Perfect Soldier, who I’m sure researches missions religiously, didn’t?) so don’t expect much, if any, mention of it. Pretty sure the whole point of it was just to show Heero’s actually a human on the inside with real human feelings even if he is a really awkward and weird one, which can be shown other ways as well.
> 
> Timeline: Episode 9


	5. Chapter 5

I swerved swiftly between the trees as I guided the motorcycle back to the Gundams. I listened for sounds of pursuit. I detected none. It seemed the confusion caused by the Leo pilot worked in our favor.

I could feel warmth soaking into my back from where Duo leaned against me. This warm, vivacious human had protected me with his life. There was barely even time to think, and yet he used it to push me down and place his body between mine and the danger. Most humans guard their short lives so selfishly and yet he was willing to throw his away to save mine. For what purpose? To him I was simply another human. One who wasn’t even that social or even nice. Was he that selfless? Did he not realise how much life was bundled into his small frame?

I felt Duo’s arms around my waist go lax. I slowed the bike. If he had lost consciousness, he risked losing his balance on the bike. I jerked my shoulders to jostle him and called out, “Duo!”

He jerked up with a snorting sound. “Huh? …Oh, sorry, Ro.” His grip firmed around my waist again. It seems my guess of a concussion was correct. I’d have to keep an eye on him.

We reached the Gundams and I gripped his upper arm to support him as he climbed off the bike. I noticed the cut on his brow had yet to stop bleeding. I had gone and licked it to trigger the accelerated healing before I even realised what I was doing. He stared at me, giving a few slow, languid blinks. “Did you just lick me?”

I turned from him and started to head toward Wing. I hoped if I ignored his question, pretended nothing happened, that combined with the concussion maybe he’d forget. He stared for a bit longer, then shrugged and headed toward Deathscythe.

After our mutual startup sequences were finished, I once again shifted Wing into flight mode, and Duo had Deathscythe grab on for easy transport. Deathscythe gave a slight shimmer and disappeared from view. I headed back towards the OZ base. Time for Phase 2.

* * *

The base was fully lit. Soldiers and Leos alike all scurried about like a riled up ant’s nest. The nearest Leos noticed my arrival just as I reached the perimeter fence. I could hear the faint pings of bullets ricocheting off Wing’s Gundanium plating as Duo spoke over our private comm channel. “Heads up. Letting go.” I felt the weight shift and adjusted to maintain my flight. I then shifted the lever to turn Wing back into a mobile suit.

I used my Buster Rifle to take out two nearby Leos. I heard a yell of “It’s a Gundam!” over the OZ comm frequency before the Leo who broadcasted split in two and exploded, Deathscythe shimmering into view next to the destroyed Leo. Duo had opened an area-wide broadcasting channel and I heard him. Duo was… Duo was _giggling_.

More Leos rushed over from all over the base. I heard yet another OZ Leo broadcast, “Oh, God! A Gundam!” before a luminous acid green scythe severed his suit in twain. There was another bout of giggling. I activated the private comm channel. “02, focus on the mission.” Deathscythe moved two Gundanium fingers to his ‘brow’ and gave a jaunty salute. Of course Duo wouldn’t simply comply with my request in a quiet, normal manner. Leaving the Leos to Duo, I turned the Buster Rifle to the base’s private shuttle launch and fired. The yellow-orange beam hit it squarely and I saw the metal supports melting around the edges of the beam. I then pressed the button to fire the Vulcan Guns and turned Wing’s ‘head’ to pan across the parked shuttles, using the rapid-fire smaller round ammunition guns to rip through their metal exteriors.

I did a quick survey of the base. Duo was finishing off the last Leo. The buildings were mostly still intact but the shuttles and launcher would be out of commission for a long while. I opened the private comm again. “02, time to move out.” I shifted Wing into flight mode and waited for the slight shift in balance signifying Deathscythe was in position and picked a random direction to fly in. Once I felt we were far enough away from the base, I turned and headed back to the boarding school.

* * *

I brought the Gundams to our original hiding spot and let Duo land first before I shifted and landed Wing. I kept an eye on Duo, worried about how his concussion would affect his balance, as we both pulled our camouflage tarps into place. He moved a bit slower than usual, seeming to focus a bit more on his movements, but he was able to handle the task just fine without my help.

Once the Gundams were as hidden as we could make them, we turned toward the school. We no longer had the motorcycle so we were facing a pretty long hike to get back. I saw Duo shift the supplies backpack a bit higher on his back and give me a weary smile, then start to head off. I followed behind him.

* * *

We reached my dorm room first. It seemed like Duo planned to continue on to his own dorm. I decided to perform a test. I called a quiet “Duo” and when he turned I tried for another glamour. “Stay in my room and let me check your concussion.”

He snorted. “Sure, Mama Yuy.” He complied with my request, but once again it was of his own will, not that of a glamour. I was baffled. I had never heard of a human other than a Claimed being completely immune to glamours. Hunters have a sort of resistance. They can usually fight off the glamour but it still ‘sticks’ at first. Why did Duo respond like a Claimed but didn’t have the feel of one? I sensed no Claim spell from him and had noticed no block when I fed from him previously.

“Ya just gonna stand in the hallway all night?”

I walked over to Duo and peered into his eyes. They seemed to be focusing now and Duo seemed more alert overall. “How do you feel?”

“Felt like shit there for awhile. Was kinda worried I was gonna ‘chuck all over my buddy ‘Scythe, but started feeling better on the way back here. So what’s the verdict, Doc?”

“I think you’re over your concussion, but you should probably sleep here so I can keep an eye on you.”

“Where are you gonna sleep? I can’t keep putting ya out like that.”

“It’s not important.”

“No. Don’t be like that.” I raised an eyebrow in question. “Don’t go thinkin’ you’re not important or nothin’. So, where ya gonna sleep? It’ll be a bit snug but we can always share the bed. I promise ta keep my hands to myself. Well, unless ya don’t want me to.” He gave me a wolfish grin.

I just stared at him.

“Joking! Joking! Come on. We’ll just sleep. Nothing more.” He scooted over to the far edge of the bed and patted the area in front of him. I walked the few paces to turn off the light and then made my way back to the bed. He shimmied himself under the blankets and held them up for me as I slid myself into the bed next to him. I rolled to my side to face him. He smiled at me. “Night, Ro.”

“Goodnight, Duo.” He fell asleep quickly. I laid there and contemplated the strange human before me. The more I learned about Duo the more confused I became.

* * *

We went back to the routine of pretending to be nothing more than mere students. It was a few days before I was finally contacted by Dr. J with the newest information on OZ’s movements. There was to be a shipment of Tauruses to Siberia. As I was reviewing the details I heard my dorm door open. I turned quickly but saw that once again it was only Duo. He had a serious look on his face that seemed out of place from how he had been around me lately.

“I've got a bad feeling about this one. OZ's transport plan is good. From what I can gather, they're gonna be taking two routes, by air and by land. Heero, could you take the air route? I'll fight them on the ground. We'll lose unless we have our own plan this time."

I couldn’t argue with his assessment so when I turned back to the information sent by Dr. J I focused on the air route.

* * *

Duo and I set off for our Gundams together. Duo was silent the whole way there. I wondered if he was nervous about this mission. One of the routes was obviously a decoy, but it shouldn’t be more than either of us could handle.

The silence continued as we both went through our start up sequences. I shifted Wing into flight mode and once again carried Deathscythe to help with travel speed. We reached the point where we would have to split up to head to our respective transport routes.

Duo gave an oddly solemn, “See ya around, Heero,” and boosted his vernier engines, shooting off to his own destination.

I angled Wing to head towards my own intercept coordinates.

* * *

When I neared the coordinates, I detected mobile suits already deployed. Sensors showed the mobile suit OZ was calling ‘Gundam 03’ was already there. I still wasn’t too sure whose side the suit was on, but since it seemed to be fighting the OZ forces I decided to leave it be. I would deal with it if needed, but I should take out the smaller forces first.

When I got within range, the Leos started firing upon me. A few shots landed on Wing’s left side, destabilizing my flight. I quickly shifted Wing into a mobile suit to use my Buster Rifle to lay down counterfire.

I took out a number of the enemy Leos but then Wing’s sensors picked up an incoming suit. I assumed it was one of the Aries troops but a simple visual check proved it to be too large. I didn’t recognise the model so I ran a quick database check. “No match” was the response written on my screen.

The unknown model was coming up fast. I raised my Buster Rifle and fired but the white suit was too quick and dodged upward. I felt the tremors of large rounds hitting on and near my Gundam as it returned fire from above.

“That’s enough, Gundam 01.” Whoever was in the unknown model had opened a broadcasting channel. “We should have no need for beam rifles or cannons between us.” The gun detached from the suit and fell to the ground. The unknown pilot pulled out a beam saber. “We’ll fight for recognition of superiority. You are a Gundam pilot. I’m sure that’ll suit you.”

I gave a quick check to my screens. Gundam 03 had taken out most of the OZ mobile suits and was heading toward the supply base. If I provided a distraction for this suit then 03 would have no trouble with the base. _Then a distraction I shall be._

I dropped the Buster Rifle and pulled out my own beam saber. I boosted the engines and charged the opposing suit. It dodged my initial swing and counterattacked with a strike of its own. I blocked it with Wing’s shield.

We continued our back and forth of strikes, dodges, and parries, seemingly evenly matched. An unknown female voice came in on my open comm frequency saying, “Calling all Gundam pilots.” I performed a simple parry one handed while my other hand flew across my equipment panel. A few key presses later and I saw that the new voice was from a long range broadcast. That didn’t help me narrow down who it was. The voice continued.

“We are now in position to stage an all out missile attack on the colonies. We have seized all missile satellites from the former Alliance. It's reasonable to say we control the destiny of all colonies. This isn't a bluff. I demand all pilots to surrender at once and hand over your Gundams!”

OZ would go so far as to threaten to destroy the colonies? I couldn’t allow that to happen; the loss to my people would be too much. I was amazed a human would even consider it. The death count of my own kind would be astronomical, and yet they made up only a small percentage of the inhabitants of space. That a human would think to murder than many of their kind was shocking.

The other suit paused in its onslaught. As I was trying to figure out what it was doing, yet another broadcast invaded the airspace of my Gundam.

“Attention OZ.” It was Dr. J. _What is he doing?_ “I never would have imagined that you people could be so incredibly foolish. The space colonies have no intention of fighting OZ. This is my personal battle that I'm staging against you!” I was just about to try to piggyback a long range private signal to ask him what he was planning but he continued.

“In your eyes, inhumane moves such as attacking the colonies are just if that's what it takes for you to come out victorious. Right? I have no choice but to surrender.” _Ah. I understand now._ I unbuckled my harness and hit the key to open the hatch. I stepped out of Wing. “I surrender but I will not hand over the Gundams.” This was going to be pretty risky. I had to hope my body could handle it. I couldn’t let Treize get such a powerful weapon as my Gundam, but I also couldn’t allow OZ to kill so many of my people. “I repeat, _I_ surrender but I will not hand over the Gundams.”

I held up my fist. Gripped in my palm was the trigger for Wing’s self destruct. I hoped my plan worked. My thumb slid onto the red button. I pressed it firmly.

My world became sudden heat and extreme force. I was propelled forward from my location. I had just enough time to note that it seemed like my predictions were correct, standing outside the Gundam had allowed the explosion to push me away instead of pulverizing me with the rest of Wing. Then I hit the ground and the serene nothingness of unconsciousness released me from the pain.

* * *

I slowly felt myself regain consciousness. Seems I was successful. Then the pain registered. I groaned.

“Here.” I heard an unfamiliar voice as I felt the cool press of a handgun against my temple. My eyes shot open. Before me was a human male. He seemed to be roughly Duo’s age. He had brown hair that was longer in the front and swept over part of his face. He was raising the wrist of one hand to my face while his other hand held the gun to my head.

“Drink. It’ll help you heal faster. But make sure you control yourself and stop soon enough or I will make you stop.” His eyes quickly shifted to the gun then back to mine. “Hollowpoint silver bullets.”

I didn’t understand why he was doing this but I certainly wasn’t going to turn down his offer. I sank my fangs into his wrist, keeping my eyes on him the whole time. I could feel the warm blood rejuvenating my battered body.

He didn’t taste as good as Duo.

I stopped myself before he could feel any adverse side effects and licked the puncture wounds to make them heal. He removed his wrist and the gun, switching on the safety and holstering it.

“One month has passed and OZ has done nothing to the colonies.”

I was stunned. I knew I would take time to heal, but an entire month? I must have cut it closer than I thought with that stunt. I eyed the young man. He had taken the time to save me after something that would have killed any human. He knew what I was and he used silver bullets. “Are you a hunter? Why did you save me?”

“The mercenary troop I grew up with was trained to kill your kind. We had to be ready to handle any contract. And I saved you because it seemed like you were an ally. I don’t know why one of your kind is fighting OZ but we could use any allies we can get.” He turned and walked to the door, pausing just before passing through. “You’re welcome to stay here until you heal as long as you don’t cause trouble.”

Just before he left I called, “Who are you?” I heard his faint response of “Trowa Barton” as he walked out the door.

* * *

I stayed with Trowa while I healed. It took much longer than I would have liked. He only let me feed off him the one time, and was adamantly against me feeding off any of the other members of the circus troupe he traveled with.

Trowa was a very serene companion, only speaking when needed and remaining in silence the rest of the time. It was a companionable silence.

Being around Trowa was quite different from being around Duo. If you had asked me before if I preferred to be around someone who was mostly silent or someone who could carry on an entire conversation by himself then I would have picked the former. But I found myself oddly wistful of the time I spent in the boarding school with Duo.

Trowa allowed me use of his computer. I often checked public news sources and hacked into OZ’s private information. I searched for any mention of Gundams or their pilots. There was a sighting of Gundam 05 listed in OZ’s files, and I read that an attack was staged on the desert rebels believed to be hosting Gundams but the rumors were unconfirmed.

I had no idea what happened to Duo after we parted ways before that last mission. I hoped no news about him meant that he was fine, that he was only in hiding.

I found myself looking forward to seeing the perplexing human with the alluring violet eyes again.

* * *

While I healed, I wasn’t able to do much other than gather as much information about OZ as I was able. I hacked every OZ system I could while remaining out of sight to their counter infiltration programs. I found out the pilot of the unknown white mobile suit was a Colonel Zechs Merquise but even more interesting, he had been rebuilding Wing. There were mentions of him being ordered to stop progress and destroy what he had rebuilt, but I had my suspicions. If you were to ignore OZ enough to rebuild a Gundam, would you then comply and destroy it on OZ orders right after? He certainly obtained enough Gundanium for two mobile suits.

The question was why? Why was Zechs rebuilding Wing? It obviously wasn’t for use by OZ since he was ordered to stop. What reason would he have for rebuilding my Gundam?

* * *

It was during one of the times I was searching for information on Gundam pilots that I stumbled upon it. Someone else was searching. Someone else was searching for _me_ specifically.

I double checked my IP was being rerouted so many times I was unlikely to be tracked and then followed the search to its source. I exploited a small weakness in the system programming that I knew of and opened a simple blank text file on the other computer.

Using the text file I typed, "Why are you looking for me?"

I waited, staring at the little blinking bar on the text file mirrored on my screen.

Then slowly the letters appeared. "I didn't expect you to really be alive. My name is Lucrezia Noin. I serve under Colonel Zechs. Colonel Zechs says he'd like to meet with you. As a fellow pilot of a mobile suit, Colonel Zechs wants to see you in hopes for another opportunity to fight you in the near future."

So Zechs was rebuilding Wing simply to finish our interrupted battle? I typed back, "Where is he?"

"I can provide transport. Just tell me where to meet you."

* * *

When Trowa learned what I was planning, he insisted on going as well.

We loaded Trowa's Gundam, Heavyarms, onto the provided transport. Noin and her men worked quickly to get the transport on its way.

We were heading for Antarctica.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> -Author’s Note-
> 
> I have trouble telling when I’m being suspenseful and mysterious or when I’m being vague and an idiot.
> 
> I’m hoping to get to throw in some more vampire politics when the politics of the show gets all crazy but right now I’m kinda just using this story as relationship practice. (For the record, my goal for this point in the story was for Duo to think of Heero as being a friend and Heero to think of Duo as being a very interesting not-enemy who he is maybe sorta kinda friendly- _ish_ towards.)
> 
> Some (obvious) changes to Heero’s post wake-up conversation with Trowa.
> 
> First ‘major’ change to what is seen in the show. Had to come up with a new way for Trowa and Heero to meet up with Noin. Didn’t really feel like doing the whole “asking the Noventas to kill me” story plot.
> 
> Timeline: Episodes 9-15


	6. Chapter 6

The transport descended on the thin landing strip at the Barclay Base in Antarctica. Noin’s men were once again efficient and quick, unloading the mobile suits from the plane.

As Trowa and I left the plane, we were met on the landing strip by a tall man wearing a helmet that masked the top half of his face. The long, pale gold hair trailing out from under the helmet danced in the frigid arctic breeze.

“You can call me Zechs Merquise,” was the simple greeting he provided before leading us into the base. We followed him down the brightly lit metal-lined hallway. He brought us to a large door. As the metal panels slid open I could tell it was the mobile suit hangar but I was surprised to see what suit was being stored there.

Wing. My beautiful mobile suit stood there in all her repaired glory. Reflected light glittered upon her. I knew there had been rumors, it was why I came to Antarctica, but somehow it still surprised me to see her there, looking untouched and new.

An engineer ran forward and Zechs introduced him as the man in charge of Wing’s repairs. It took all I could to hold back a growl. At that moment it sunk in. _My beautiful Wing has been defiled by OZ hands._ I wanted nothing more than to look over every inch of her.

Zechs informed me that our duel would be the following morning and then left me to become reacquainted with my Gundam.

I started the check right away, but it was soon apparent it would take longer than one evening to give her the thorough inspection I wanted. Trowa had earlier offered me the use of Heavyarms in this duel, so I decided to take him up on that offer.

I spent the rest of the evening doing tune-ups on Heavyarms, trying to get Trowa’s Gundam to peak efficiency. It was late that night, or more accurately early the next morning, when Trowa offered to take over.

I made my way over to the base’s sleeping quarters and collapsed on the first empty cubby-hole bed I came across.

* * *

I entered the room and found Duo sleeping on my bed. He was once again curled up on his side. The delicate skin of his throat on full display. I quietly shut the door behind me.

I stepped toward the bed, but as I neared he rolled onto his back. I froze, unsure about being caught. He smiled at me. He reached a hand to me.

“Join me,” he murmured.

I continued my progress to the bed, but instead of kneeling to the side, Duo beckoned me onto the bed. He pulled me until I was kneeling on the soft mattress between his thighs. Then one of his hands cupped my jaw and he leaned in.

He pressed his lips to mine.

My nose was assaulted by his tempting scent. I returned the kiss hungrily. My tongue delved into his warm mouth. He welcomed the invasion with a moan. His mouth had the sweet flavor that infused his blood, extremely muted but still there. I loved the way Duo tasted.

He broke the kiss and tilted his head back. I ran small kisses down his jawline. Down his throat where I could feel the delicate beat of his pulse against my lips. Down farther. His clothes were gone. I heard his breath hitch as I lapped at a pert nipple.

I scooted back on the bed. I continued the kisses down farther and farther. Past his need and onto the creamy skin of his inner thigh. I nuzzled the velvety skin.

“Please,” he begged.

I pressed one quick kiss to his thigh, then opened my mouth wide and sank my fangs into the luscious skin. The taste of Duo became my world. I drank greedily of his life. I heard him give off a long, pleasured moan. He fisted his hands in my hair. His need twitched and began to weep.

Duo’s aroused scent was a heady mix.

One of my hands gripped his hip. Probably hard enough to leave bruises. I continued to suckle the silky skin of his thigh. His head thrashed against the pillow as he gave off keening cries of pleasure.

His body went stiff and with a loud moan he shot his essence over his stomach. I lapped at the puncture wounds on his thigh to heal them. I crawled up the bed to lay beside him. He pillowed his head on my shoulder. I curled one arm around him and ran the other up and down his side. He hummed his contentment.

“I love you, Ro.”

* * *

I awoke suddenly. I was confused to find myself in a small cubby-hole bunk bed instead of the dorm bed I was expecting. Then my brain caught up with me and I remembered where I was. Barclay Base, Antarctica.

It was only a dream.

_Why am I dreaming about Duo like this?_

* * *

I sat in Heavyarms facing Zechs’ white mobile suit, Tallgeese. The serene, crystalline snow coated the land around us. A breeze occasionally lifted a few of the flakes, bringing them up to sparkle in the sunlight.

Zechs made the first move, bringing up Tallgeese’s large, high powered Dober Gun to fire upon me. I quickly dodged. Zechs continued his barrage; I used Heavyarms’ Beam Gatling Gun to return fire. The serene landscape was instantly disrupted as our two suits battled against each other.

During our back and forth, Zechs opened up a broadcasting comm channel. I wasn’t entirely sure if he was actually talking to me or simply railing at the world at large.

“You are strong so I shall fight you and I will _defeat_ you!” I quickly upped the output on the vernier engines, steering the Gundam into a swift dodge to the left. “I will prove that I am strong as well!” I hurriedly hit the switch to fire Heavyarms’ missiles at the white mobile suit. “I will _prove_ to His Excellency that I deserve to be one of his kind!” I faltered a moment when I heard the words. _Zechs knows Treize isn’t human?_ I caught myself and quickly started to fire upon the snow covered landscape around me, causing the snow to billow up even more to help disguise my location.

As the snow cleared, we found ourselves in a standoff. I raised the Beam Gatling Gun and started to fire. The gun managed a few shots before the hollow clicking noise started, signifying I was out. I slammed my fist into a large button on the left of my control panel, releasing the gun from the Gundam. I looked at the stub of the Gundam’s arm where I had expected a fist. A beam saber was nestled into the remaining arm. _Trowa really went out of his way for me._ I pulled out the saber and activated the beam.

I boosted the engines, charging Tallgeese. Zechs blocked the attack with a small round shield. He threw aside his own gun and drew a beam saber as well. The fight continued.

Zechs landed a good hit, knocking Heavyarms off balance. Just as he was going for the finishing blow a plane flew in the way, blocking him.

The plane was broadcasting a young woman’s voice. _Relena?_ “I hereby order you under the name of the Peacecraft family. Stop this battle immediately!” _That girl is certainly good at ending up places where she doesn’t belong._ While I was distracted by Relena, Zechs ignored her, knocking the beam saber from my Gundam’s hand and continued the assault as soon as the plane cleared the airspace between us. “No! If you’re a true warrior and Peacecraft knight, you couldn’t possibly use such foul play!” I activated Heavyarms’ army knife and used it to interrupt the barrage of attacks.

My sensors suddenly picked up massive amounts of incoming. Wing showed up on an ice shelf nearby and Trowa’s voice broadcasted informing us of how many suits the incoming OZ search party had. Trowa and I were about to take on the incoming troops when Zechs interrupted us.

“I’ll handle them all myself! Heero, we’ll meet again to continue our battle.” He quickly shot off to intercept the OZ mobile suits.

Trowa activated Wing’s flight form and I had Heavyarms grab on as soon as the transformation finished. We quickly made our escape from Barclay Base.

* * *

We cut it close on Wing’s energy reserves but we finally made it to South America. Trowa assisted me in finding a place to hide Wing so I could finish going over everything, making sure everything was rebuilt correctly and up to my own personal standards. Then we parted ways, Trowa taking Heavyarms to locations unknown.

* * *

I _needed_ to feed. The Hunger was a screaming cacophony within my skull. Despite this, I found myself passing up perfectly good targets. The mildly intoxicated roaming around on their own. The nameless bums scattered in the dark alleys. The young people on some drug or other making them overly suggestible. I roamed the streets passing all of them.

I finally found what I was looking for in front of a crowded club. Though I hadn’t known that was what I was looking for until I found him. I usually wouldn’t go for such a target; the line of people stood there waiting to gain access, watching everything. I simply strode up to the young man. He looked up when I invaded his personal space. I invoked a glamour and commanded, “Follow me.” His eyes glazed over and I lead us to a deserted alley.

I turned to look at the man. His lithe body was clad in black leather pants and a black tank top, artfully destroyed to provide glimpses of the skin beneath through the shredded holes. He had a somewhat oval shaped face and brown eyes. I gripped his shoulders and turned his back to face me.

His taut, pert ass could easily be made out through the tight leather. His long chestnut hair was held in a ponytail. From this angle it would be easy to imagine him being someone else.

I wrapped my arms around his slender waist and pulled his body against mine. His ass snugged up against my groin. I felt myself harden. I brushed aside the flowing chestnut locks and sank my fangs into his neck.

It was harder to maintain the illusion once I started to feed. His blood lacked that addicting sweet taste. Luckily the Hunger thrilled in being satisfied, even if I myself was not.

Hunger abated, I sent the man on his way. I continued to roam the streets. I had finished all the checks and minor tweaks for Wing and had hidden my Gundam off the coast nearby. I had received no messages from Dr. J. I wasn’t really sure what to do next.

My aimless wandering had taken me out of the club district and into a merchant district. It seemed this city hosted more of a nightlife than just clubs since the majority of the stores were still open this late.

I passed by a small electronics store. The window display hosted numerous flatscreen tvs displaying various exotic fish to show off the vibrant color display. When they all instantaneously switched to show something different, they caught my eye. It was a breaking news report. I paused in my wandering, turning to the wall of tvs.

I saw Deathscythe and Gundam 04 assaulting an OZ spaceport. _Duo. He’s alive._ Watching that black Gundam reap destruction with the swing of its luminous green scythe I felt like a weight had been lifted from my chest. It bewildered me. Yes, I should be glad that an ally was still alive, but would I be _this_ glad?

As I watched Duo and his Gundam perform a dance of death and destruction the image suddenly shrank on the screen to allow for another image to be displayed as well. A mousy looking man at a podium was being displayed.

“We wish to publicly announce a decision made by Space Colony Area D. Mobile suits, known as Gundams, are currently going around destroying OZ’s facilities. These Gundams have nothing to do with Colony Area D.” _The colonies are no longer supporting the Gundams?_ “We hereby declare that if the Gundams declare OZ an enemy then we will consider the Gundams ours. OZ has been fair to us. It didn’t take long for OZ and us to work out our misunderstandings toward each other.” _OZ is in space and has teamed up with the colonies!?_ “We hope that the Gundams are defeated in this battle. We further hope that the other colonies will follow the example we set with this declaration.”

I growled and clenched my fists. _If OZ is playing nice with the colonies then they can no longer use them as hostages, and if OZ is in space then I should be as well._ I would have to leave Wing. My Gundam wasn’t outfitted for space manoeuvring and would simply slow me down.

I scanned the road quickly, settling on a small nondescript car nearby. I hurried to it as quickly as I could without drawing attention. I did another quick scan to see if anyone was looking my way before slamming my fist through the window. I hurried to unlock the car door and hop in. I removed the small blade I sheathed at my ankle and used it to unscrew and pry off the steering column’s plastic covering. I carefully cut and twisted together the power wires then I cut the starter wires and touched them together. The car started with a quiet hum.

I made my way through the city until I reached a highway. I headed towards the nearest OZ spaceport.

* * *

I abandoned the car a few miles from the base and jogged the rest of the way. I ignored the more popular main entrance and circled the perimeter until I found a quiet side entrance. I eyed the security. There was a stationary camera mounted above the guard shack and a single guard ready to check identification. _Easy._

I walked up to the guard shack, making sure to maintain an angle where my face would not be clearly shown on the camera.

“Hey! Kid! This is a restricted area!” The guard ran towards me. When he was in range, I established eye contact and invoked a glamour.

“Open the gate for me and forget I was ever here.”

The guard shambled back into the guard shack and pressed a button on the panel inside. The gate fencing slowly slid to the right, allowing entrance. I passed through quickly and sprinted over to the nearest building, using shadows to hide my presence.

It was simple work to avoid the patrols as I made my way over to the shuttle storage area. I grabbed a flight suit from one of the lockers just to the left of the hangar door and took it with me into the nearest shuttle. I swiftly changed into the suit, sat in the pilot’s chair, and initiated take-off procedures. An alarm sounded, announcing an unschedule take-off, but OZ was too late now. The shuttle shot forward through the launch tunnel going faster and faster. It exited the tunnel, aiming upward, punching through the atmosphere on it’s way to space.

* * *

When I reached the quiet, suburban-style colony, the first thing I did was locate a public library. I used one of the computer terminals to search for an appropriate school. I started an online application. I paused at the first line of the form.

First Name: __________________________

Last Name: __________________________

Before I knew it, I entered ‘Duo Maxwell’. I stared at the entry. _Why am I always thinking about that guy?_ I shrugged. _Maybe I’ll just ask Duo when I see him next._

After filling out the form, I performed a simple hack to gain access to the school’s files to approve my application. Then I ‘borrowed’ some funds from OZ and used them to obtain a small apartment near the school. I cleared all traces of myself from the computer terminal and left the library.

* * *

I visited the library often to keep up to date on OZ’s movements. I was just finishing up my latest visit when I heard a mild commotion. There was a crowd of people surrounding a tv, all talking amongst themselves. I stepped closer to see what they were going on about.

I glanced over a shoulder of one person to make out the screen. _Duo!_ Duo was being escorted by OZ soldiers. _Did he get captured?_ I heard the announcer ramble on. “OZ has commented that the arrest will assist them as they increase efforts to eradicate rebels and their respective organizations...” _He WAS captured._ I knew that it didn’t look good for Duo. They probably started interrogating him the moment they got him to a secure location. And I was pretty sure OZ’s idea of interrogation was anyone else’s idea of torture. _I have to do something._

The location Duo was being held was nearby the colony where I was currently staying. After a bit of searching OZ’s files I found there was a regularly scheduled supply transport from this colony to there. I hid on board and used that to infiltrate the defenses.

I slowly snuck around the supply storage area, setting up my distraction before I made my way to the detention block. Passing by a partially open door I saw that the cells were barely bigger than a closet, and didn’t even have basic amenities. I felt a thread of anger course through me. OZ didn’t even bother to treat prisoners with even a modicum of respect, and these were the people holding Duo captive. Thoughts circled in my head. _Is Duo still ok? Have they broken him? Is he even still alive?_ I felt a thread of fear course through me, and it only fueled my anger. When I found the cell with the guard posted outside I was too angry. I didn’t even bother with a glamour, I just knocked the man unconscious.

I punched the button to open the door and tossed the unconscious guard unceremoniously to the floor. I glanced up. _Duo!_ He was slumped against the far wall. Even in the dim lighting I could make out bruises beginning to form. _Did they break him?_ He looked horrible. _Am I too late?_

 _Would it be better to put him out of his misery?_ I lifted my gun.

“Just in time. They were about to use me and my Gundam for their wicked plans.” Duo used the wall as leverage to stand up. “If I’m gonna die it would seem appropriate for you to do it.” He closed his eyes. “Here. Go right ahead and shoot me.”

His rambling made it seem like he still retained his mind and his spirit, but the words confused me. _Does he WANT me to kill him? Is he in that much pain?_ I moved my finger on the trigger, starting to pull it back. My finger hesitated. _I don’t want to lose his light._

“Hey! You’re really gonna shoot me, aren’t ya?”

“If that’s what you want me to do.” He didn’t answer. I decided to simply make the choice for him. “Your right hand’s still ok, isn’t it?” I tossed him the gun and picked up the automatic rifle the guard had dropped. I propped Duo’s arm over my shoulder to support him as we left the cell.

I pressed the detonation switch for my distraction, setting off the bombs I placed earlier. They had the desired result. It was easy to avoid guards during the chaos. We made our way to the mobile suit launching bay. I loaded a couple Leos onto a shuttle and launched it. The Taurus mobile dolls attacked it as planned and their A.I. registered Leos as an enemy, causing the Tauruses in the base to start attacking all the stored Leos.

While that was drawing the attention of OZ troops, I found a storage locker holding one of OZ’s flight suits. I put it on quickly then fired upon one of the mobile dolls, causing them to register the OZ flight suits as enemies as well. The Taurus followed my predictions and started to attack the OZ troops for us.

While the mobile dolls continued the chaos, Duo and I entered another shuttle to make our escape.

* * *

Using fake information, I checked Duo into a small civilian hospital. He argued it wasn’t safe, but I had to make sure he was okay. Cuts, bruises, broken bones? I can handle all those. Internal bleeding or brain swelling? Outside the realm of my field medic training. The small hospital was lightly staffed and I was sure I could handle them if needed. I estimated the travel time for an OZ response team from the nearest base and swore to Duo that even if the doctor wasn’t done by then, I’d help him escape before that time. That helped calm him.

I raided the hospital’s supplies as the doctor looked Duo over. As soon as they were sure he had no serious injuries I then helped him make a break for it. I took him to my apartment and laid him out on the bed.

I watched him sleep. _Why was I so worried about him? Why am I so glad he’s fine?_ I didn’t know the answers to any of the questions running through my head.

* * *

I wanted to stay until Duo was healed but I had a job to do. OZ had captured Dr. J and the other scientists, and was ordering large quantities of Gundanium alloy. I was sure they were using the scientists to design a new type of mobile suit. I needed to go to Lunar Base.

Duo wasn’t happy about being left behind. I once again tried, and failed, at casting a glamour on him. I wanted him to stay and rest. Luckily even though I couldn’t force him to take it easy, he still agreed anyways. Hopefully he _stays_ there.

I left Duo to recover in my apartment and caught a shuttle headed to the Moon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> -Author’s Note-
> 
>  **Warning** : Do not mess with live wires with your bare hands! (And it’s a good idea to not hotwire cars too btw.)
> 
> Slight change in this chapter, and I’d call it more a fix than a change. When Duo and Quatre were attacking the OZ spaceport, at one point they check the news coverage from their Gundams and see the other Gundams (including Wing) attacking spaceports of their own, but then when Heero rescues Duo later, he says he didn’t bring Wing to space. So what’d he do? Attack the base with his Gundam, fly off to hide it, then mosey on back to steal a shuttle? Makes no sense to me so I figure the whole showing Wing fighting was more symbolic for the viewers’ understanding than actually happening.
> 
> Btw, wth is Pagan? Dude can find secret OZ information, pilot planes, etc. Fucking secret agent.
> 
> Timeline: Episodes 16-20
> 
> I can’t find info on what power source the Gundams in AC use. (I wish I could just say they all use GN drives and then imagine them all as sparkle Gundams. ♥ sparkle Gundams!)


	7. Chapter 7

The small OZ outpost was pretty lacking in security. It was merely a communications hub, routing and boosting OZ communications between space and the Earth. It never held more than two or three personnel at a time and since they considered themselves as doing nothing more than secretary work, they were lax in their guard. I simply walked right in.

There were only two men on duty at this hour. I made it all the way to the center of the room before they even noticed my presence. Both pulled a gun on me and the nearest asked for identification. I simply glamoured them both and told them to take a nice long nap.

While the OZ men may have only been dealing with communications, the thing they seemed to forget was that their small outpost was still directly linked to the OZ database. I quickly used their computer console to look up information about Lunar Base.

I found that OZ had the Gundam scientists working on designing two new suits for them. I would have to try to destroy the new suits along with the scientists.

I performed a quick hack into Lunar Base’s security camera feed and set a particular one to loop.

* * *

I ignored the camera above the door as I made my way into one of Lunar Base’s air scrubber stations. I quickly shed the suit I had used for the moon surface walk while the airlock cycled. Once the light on the inner door turned green, I hit the button to cause the door to slide open and entered the room.

The hum of the machinery echoed in the small metal room. I circled one of the O₂ recyclers until I found the small maintenance hatch. I gripped the metal loop and pulled until the heavy panel slid clear of the opening. I then dropped into the now open ventilation duct and prepared myself for a long crawl.

* * *

I tied my shoelaces to the vent grate before kicking it free. The screws would fall to the floor but they were small enough to probably not be noticed over the noise of the life support and the shoelaces caught the grate before it could impact against anything and give away my location. I carefully pulled it into the ventilation duct and untied myself from it.

A quick scan of the room showed me I was more lucky than I could ever hope. Both of the new model of suits were in this hangar, and I could see the scientists bunched around a computer display talking with a small troop of OZ. I could take out all mission objectives at one time.

I slowly lowered myself from the vent. Hanging from my hands, I started to rock back and forth to build momentum before letting go and swinging to one of the cables supporting the mobile suit below me. I slid down the cable to land softly on the suit’s shoulder.

As I scrambled to the cockpit, I was glad to note the large gun the suit held. It seemed I had come out of the ventilation above OZ’s offensive suit, the Vayeate. I rushed through the startup sequence.

I flipped the switch to activate the Vayeate’s weapon systems and manoeuvred the joystick to aim the weapon. I pressed the button to fire but unfortunately I underestimated the weapon’s warm up speed, or lack there of. In the seconds I waited for the gun to fire, someone was able to force the defensive suit, the Mercurius, to activate it’s shield, blocking my attack.

The only partially constructed suit that I was using broke free of its supports and crashed into the floor. I slammed the hatch release button with my fist and hurried out to prepare for retaliation. One of the OZ men was quick to respond, flipping over the blockade of the suit’s gun to aim a handgun at me. I drew my Beretta to take him out but paused when I saw his face. _Trowa?_ I quickly figured out the situation and decided to surrender myself. I would see what Trowa had planned for OZ.

* * *

OZ put me to work test piloting their new suits along with Trowa. I had to seriously question the sanity of the person in charge. Was the flight data worth simply handing over such a powerful suit to a known Gundam pilot? Even if they didn’t suspect Trowa, it was still a pretty questionable tactic. But since it allowed me to familiarize myself with their new models, I had no problem with playing along.

After yet another test flight I was returned to my cell only to find it already occupied. There was a young Asian man resting against the wall of the cell. I recognised him as Pilot 05 but that was as far as my knowledge about him went. As I got closer, I nearly stumbled in surprise. He was no young man. He was a vampire. An _extremely old_ vampire. I couldn’t think of any vampire I had ever met that felt this old before.

Not sure what to say, or if there even was anything to say, I simply sat down on the tiered floor. I had barely sat when I heard the other pilot begin to speak and shifted myself to face him.

“Since there is no one here to perform a formal introduction I fear I must perform the task myself. I am Chang Wufei of the Dragon Clan. It is an honor to make your acquaintance, Your Majesty.”

He gave a short bow and I tilted my head in acknowledgment. _Chang Wufei of the Dragon Clan?_ I had certainly heard of him but had never met him. He was one of the oldest vampires known to exist. He was rumored to be nearly 5,000 years old but no one but he knows for sure. _What makes someone like him decide to pilot a Gundam?_

* * *

The next few days was spent in relative silence. Neither Wufei nor I were the talkative sort. Our silence was interrupted by the opening of the cell door. Someone was practically tossed into the room, stumbling down the tiered floor and falling flat on their face.

I felt my blood freeze when I recognised who it was. _Duo ignored my command to stay put. He got himself hurt again!_ I was angry at the situation and confused about why I was so angry. I ended up taking out my frustration on Duo himself. “Botched your mission? You couldn’t destroy the base and you didn’t kill Dr. J and the others.”

“How ‘bout a little sympathy? In any case, I’m still glad I decided to come here. I’ve got good news.” Duo opened his eyes and looked towards Wufei. “Your Gundam and mine are being rebuilt as we speak, ya know. I can hardly wait until they’re done.”

“Looks like OZ will be keeping us alive for awhile. It’s a good chance. So don’t die yet.” _You can’t die yet. I won’t allow it!_

“Don’t worry about me, pal. I have no intention of dying that easily. There’s the colonies to fight for. Just watch me. I’ll become the God of Death once again! But right now… I need some sleep.”

Fear gripped me as Duo went quiet and still. I rushed over to him. I breathed a sigh of relief when I felt his pulse. _Only passed out. Not dead._ I very carefully checked Duo’s body to catalogue his injuries. I could feel Wufei eyeing me with curiosity but I just ignored him. There were more important things to deal with. I gently rolled Duo over onto his back to continue my observations. I ran my hands down his side, lightly pressing each rib. Even unconscious he gave a small groan when I pressed on one from his right side. It didn’t feel broken, but it could be cracked. Unfortunately I didn’t have anything to wrap it.

I shifted Duo so that I could get my legs under him, letting him use my lap as a pillow as he rested. I brushed aside a few stray strands of hair that had escaped his braid and prepared myself for a long wait.

* * *

Some hours later Duo awoke. When he became aware of his position he quickly sat up and scooted a few feet away. I was relatively untrained in certain facial reactions, but I was pretty sure he was blushing.

He opened his mouth to speak, but he was interrupted by the cell door opening. Five guards entered the room. I eyed them suspiciously. I could sense the one in the front was a vampire, and the glassy eyed looks on the four others implied a glamour.

The vampire guard smirked at Duo. “I think it’s time to play, human.” He jerked his head and two of the guards trained a gun on Wufei and I and the remaining two headed for Duo. Duo quickly scrambled to his feet and backed up but the cell was only so big and he got stopped by the wall. I could see in his eyes the will to fight but then his eyes flicked to the two guards holding us at gunpoint. He simply stood there as the guards grabbed him by the upper arms and dragged him back to the center of the room.

I assessed the guard who had his gun trained on me. The general sluggish actions of a person under glamour could be counteracted by a carefully worded command. A simple “Shoot them quickly if they move” could cause this guard to be a valid threat. And I had no idea what command they had been given.

The vampire stalked toward Duo while addressing Wufei and I. “You two shouldn’t interfere. You don’t want me to play too rough now, do you?” He gripped his hand onto Duo’s chin.

“Leave me alone you sick pervert!” He tried to jerk himself free, but the guards had too strong a hold on him.

The lead guard ignored him and leaned close. I couldn’t help the growl that escaped my throat. _I should have Claimed Duo when I had the chance! Then no one else would be able to touch him!_ You could hear the large inhale. “You smell exquisite.”

“What the fuck!”

The guard pulled back just enough so that Duo could get a clear view of his fangs as he opened his mouth wide, before plunging toward his neck. Just before his fangs landed he jerked back as if burned, releasing Duo. He glared at Duo and Duo glared right back. The guard pulled back his hand, preparing to backhand Duo, but before the blow could even land the vampire let out a yelp and cradled his hand to his chest as if injured.

The vampire fumed while glaring at Duo. He barked a curt “Out!” to the glamoured guards. The two holding Duo let go at once. Duo fell to his rump at the suddenness of the action but quickly scrambled back to a standing position. The lead guard then stormed out of the cell, locking the door behind him.

“Holy fucking shit! What the fuck was that!? Did you guys see that!?” Duo held up his hands in a ‘stop’ gesture. “Don’t answer that. I don’t know if it would be better to hear confirmation of what I saw or confirmation I’ve gone batshit crazy but seriously, what the holy fuck!? Dude had fangs! FANGS! Holy fucking shit! And he tried to bite me! Like a fucking vampire!” Duo’s eyes grew comically large. “Holy shit! He WAS a vampire! Dude was a goddamn motherfucking vampire!” Duo started pacing and his shouting diminished to a litany of quiet ‘Holy shit’s.

I thought over what had just happened. It made no sense to me. I turned to Wufei; perhaps he had come across this phenomenon before. “Can someone have the traits of a Claimed but not feel like a Claimed?”

Instead of responding to me, he yelled to Duo. “Idiot, shut up for a moment.”

Duo spun to face him, eyes still practically bulging from his face. “How can you be so calm!? That was a fucking _vampire_! A fucking vampire tried to bite me! Fucking vampires actually exist! What if he comes back!?” His eyes shot to the door and he took a half step away from it.

Wufei rolled his eyes. “You’ve been locked in a cell with two vampires for hours now and you’re worried about the one out there?” Wufei gave an open-mouthed grin, putting his fangs on full display.

Duo stared at him, mouth agape. He took a few steps to stand next to me. “Ro, you seein’ this too?”

I glared at Wufei. This wasn’t how I wanted to tell Duo, if I ever told him at all. “It’s ok, Duo. I won’t hurt you and I will do my best to prevent any of the others from hurting you.”

His eyes didn’t leave Wufei as he addressed me. “Wait… _you_ won’t hurt me? Why would I think you would hurt me?”

“Duo, look at me.” His eyes darted to me. I opened my mouth to let him see my fangs clearly. It seemed that was the last straw. Duo’s legs gave out and he fell to his rump once again.

Wufei chose this moment to cut in. “Do you have a talisman that you keep on you at all times? Such as a ring or other article of jewelry?”

Duo’s wide eyes turned back to Wufei. “I have my cross Father Maxwell gave me. That what you talkin’ about?”

“Could be. Could you do me a favor and remove it for a moment?”

“Why?” He continued to stare wide-eyed at Wufei.

Wufei rolled his eyes again. “Idiot, I promise to not drink from you without your permission. It would be an injustice to treat an ally with such disrespect. I merely want to test a theory.”

With the cuffs binding his wrists, Duo had to work the chain around until the clasp was in the front before he could unlatch it. “Now what?”

“Can you place it on the floor and step a few feet away from it please?”

Duo thought about it for a moment but seemed to come to the decision that it couldn’t really make the situation worse so he did what Wufei asked.

It almost felt like a punch to the face, it hit me so hard. My own eyes went wide when I sensed the spell. Duo _was_ Claimed. But he wasn’t just any Claimed. He was _my_ Claimed.

Duo was mine.

I couldn’t help but simply stare. I could hear Wufei’s voice addressing me, tone full of incredulity. “You didn’t recognise your own Claimed?” His words turned condescending. “And why would you want to Claim a Hunter of all things.”

That broke me out of my shock. “Duo’s not a Hunter.”

“He has to be. The Claim Suppression spell is Hunter magic. It was bound to the cross.” He turned to Duo. “You can put it back on now by the way.”

I watched as Duo picked up the cross. The moment his fingers touched the metal I could no longer sense my Claim spell. He made sure the cross was securely around his neck again and then tucked it under his shirt. He looked back and forth between Wufei and I. “Why’s Wufei calling me a hunter? And what’s he mean by being claimed?”

I was glad that Duo had started to calm down. Wufei just looked speculatively at him so I decided to answer his questions. “Hunters are humans who are trained to hunt and kill our kind.”

“He thinks I’m a vamp killer?” He turned to Wufei. “What the fuck? I didn’t even know vampires existed ‘til like 5 minutes ago. Why would you think I was a Hunter?”

Wufei continued his speculative assessment. “You have a valid point. I believe even you wouldn’t be able to fake a reaction like that. So you truly did not know of our existence until now. But that does not explain the spell. That is definitely Hunter magic.”

Duo pulled his cross out from his shirt again and stared at it. Then suddenly yelled, “Holy shit!” He pointed at Wufei. “You’re the ‘monsters’ Mikhael always talked about!”

“Mikhael?” I had to ask.

“Part of the group at the church where I use to live. Father Maxwell had this sorta secret club where people trained with weapons and stuff. He had them teach me all sorts of stuff, but when they’d go out they wouldn’t let me go with them. They were Hunters weren’t they?”

“You were raised by Hunters?” Well, that would explain the silver bullets, but… “Why aren’t you a Hunter?”

Duo shrugged. “Guess he never had a chance to get around to the big reveal.” He continued in a quieter tone. “I didn’t get to live with him for that long before the Alliance killed ‘im.” He gripped the chain above his cross between his thumb and forefinger and started to roll his fingers back and forth causing it to twirl. He got a pensive look on his face. He mumbled, “But, Mikhael useta always call Solo a monster too…”

I felt a jolt pass through me. “You knew Solo?”

He stared at me, surprised. “ _You_ knew Solo!? He was the leader of the gang I useta run with when I was a kid. If that’s the same Solo, how the hell do you know him? And was what Mikhael said true? Was he a vamp as well?”

“Solo was the leader of the L2 vampire clan.”

Wufei startled us both by suddenly bursting out into laughter. He turned his mirth-filled eyes to me. “You have the most unique Claimed I have ever met. How did you ever find a human that was raised by both vampires _and_ Hunters and somehow knew about neither?”

“Hey! You never did answer! What the hell does claimed mean? And why do you keep talking like Heero _owns_ me or somethin’?”

Wufei decided to field that question. “It’s vampire magic. It uses a vampire’s blood to bind a spell to a human. The spell protects the human from harm from any vampire who is unable to overpower the spell, and it lets all other vampires know who that humans belongs to. You happen to be Claimed by Prince Yuy here.”

“WHAT!?” Duo stood up quickly and stalked over to punch me on the arm. “You did the vamp equivalent of a dog pissing on a tree!? When the fuck did you do that? And please tell me it doesn’t fucking include pissing!”

I couldn’t help but smile. Duo was acting normal around me again. “I did not urinate on you. I Claimed you when you were around 5 or 6 years of age. I’m assuming you do not remember the incident, but you had just saved my life. I decided to place a Claim to help try to protect you from other vampires. L2 was always a popular feeding ground and the homeless were especially at risk.”

“So you did this not-pissing thing to me to keep other vamps from having a Duo snack?”

“Essentially.”

His cheeks turned slightly pink. “Oh, well... umm... thanks I guess.” He then held both his hands up, palms facing forward. “And please, please tell me I didn’t just hear Fei call you _Prince Yuy_.”

“It’s _Wu_ fei and yes. You’re talking to the fourth generation of the Yuy line and heir to the throne.”

“No shit!” He looked to me for confirmation, I simply nodded. “Wow, I’ve been sharin’ dinky ass dorm rooms with a fuckin’ prince! A _vampire_ prince no less! They didn’t beat my head in too hard did they?”

I gave him a light thwap on the head. “Idiot. You’re not imagining things. Your skull’s too thick for them to hit you that hard anyways.”

He gaped at me again. “A joke! Now I _know_ I’ve lost it!”

I smiled at him. I was glad Duo finally knew and seemed fine with me being a vampire. I’d still have to wrap my head around Duo being mine though.

* * *

It was nearly a week later when the cell door opened and two guards walked in. One gruffly commanded, “Get out, 01.”

Duo complained, “Come on. How come him again? I’m a better pilot than 01 is, ya know? Let me take care of the next battle.”

Trowa stepped forward from behind the two guards. He explained that Duo wouldn't be able to handle this mission since he was still recovering and we'd be facing a new Gundam model this time. Of course, the moment Trowa mentioned a new Gundam model, my interest was peaked.

Duo just had to be his usual self though. He started to shit-talk but then Trowa promptly turned and punched him in the gut. “You guys just better keep quiet. You’ll get your turn eventually.” I calmly exited the cell while boiling inside. Trowa followed behind me. Once we were in the hallway I slowed to walk next to him and said just loud enough that he could hear but the other two guards couldn’t, “You hurt Duo again and I’ll kill you.”

His expressive eyes widened slightly and he muttered, “Understood.”

I had to trust Wufei to protect Duo as I set my thoughts to the new suit.

* * *

Trowa and I set out in the Vayeate and Mercurius as planned. Whoever was piloting the new Gundam had already destroyed two colonies and had just threatened a third. 

When we arrived, one of the Leo pilots questioned how quiet the colony seemed. “Do you really think he’s here? Couldn’t he have already gone to a different area?” Trowa assured him and ordered three of the Leo pilots to search the colony interior.

It wasn’t long before we heard them radio back, “It’s here! The Gundam is here! It’s inside the colony!” But they were quickly silenced in a burst of static. The new model left the colony and headed our way. I ran my hand swiftly across the Mercurius’ equipment panel to force the screens to zoom in on the target. _It looks so much like Wing…_

The new Gundam dispatched all the rest of our Leo escort without even a problem. Trowa opened a comm channel. “Quatre! This is Trowa. Can you hear me, Quatre?”

“I can hear you, Trowa. Don’t come any closer, Trowa.” Quatre’s tone sounded off. My suspicions something was wrong grew but Trowa didn’t deviate his flight toward the new Gundam. “What did I just say!? DON’T GET ANY CLOSER TO ME!” I could only watch as Quatre raised the double beam cannon and fired on Trowa’s Vayeate.

Half his suit was instantly disintegrated. I zoomed the cameras in and breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed like the cockpit was still mostly intact. It was likely Trowa was fine. My hopes were confirmed when I heard Trowa speak over our shared comm channel. “Hey, Quatre, what’s going on here?”

“Trowa, outer space has gone crazy! I’m gonna use this Gundam to destroy it ALL! I have no choice but to destroy all the weapons that have accumulated out here. The colonies are becoming armed, right? That’s why the colonies must be destroyed!”

Something was very much wrong with Quatre. It was becoming increasingly obvious to me, but Trowa continued trying to talk sense into him. I could tell that wasn’t going to work so I took action.

I charged Quatre’s Gundam, using the Mercurius’ shield to block beam cannon fire and attacked with my beam saber. He dropped the gun for his own beam saber. I held my own for awhile but he slowly destroyed the shield generator discs one by one, weakening my shield. The Mercurius just simply lacked the firepower to deal with the new Gundam.

Quatre fired once again with the double beam cannon and dealt the final blow to my shield. He aimed to make the killing blow, but just as he fired, the Vayeate intercepted the beam. Trowa continued to try to talk sense to Quatre, but I quickly used the distraction to grab the Vayeate’s gun, firing on the new Gundam.

The Vayeate was sparking dangerously. “Trowa, the Vayeate’s about to explode. Get out now!” But instead of exiting the suit, Trowa calmly accepted his fate and started to fly the suit a safe distance from the colony.

He kept his comm channel open, not giving up his effort to talk sense into Quatre the whole time. He argued with Quatre that the colonies teaming up with OZ was the end of a war, even if it wasn’t the end we were fighting for, and that we should consider the fact that we were no longer needed. He pleaded with Quatre. “Turn back into the nice guy I once knew. I just hope that something triggers your mind and calms you down. Something-” He was cut off by the blinding explosion of the Vayeate.

I heard Quatre scream his name over the comm channel, but I had to use the opening Trowa provided. I ramped output on the engines and slammed into Quatre’s Gundam. I had to stop him at all cost. The Mercurius was failing around me and a black haze snuck in around the edges of my vision. The beam saber overheated, destroying the suit’s arm and slamming the suit and myself backwards. I fought to stay focused but the black haze overtook me.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> -Author’s Note-
> 
> Sally has “Gundam radar” Newtype powers. That’s the only thing that makes sense.
> 
> In case you skipped the wall-o-text at the end of the first chapter (I certainly don’t blame you :P), I defined 3000AD as when the Earth switched to the AC system. So to give you an idea of how old Wufei is, he’s about as old as China itself.
> 
> I have to credit Seithr-Kairy for the idea of binding the Claim Suppression spell to Duo’s cross. I had just planned on making it a permanent cast on himself and the cross was to simply be a test for how Duo reacted to silver, but I liked that idea better. :) (And here we are, some 20k words later, and you finally get the answer to your question. :P)
> 
> Timeline: Episodes 20-25


	8. Interlude II

  
_Treize’s POV_ ¹

“Okay. Other than being amazed at your vital signs, the doctor said everything looks good. You’ll be able to leave here whenever you want. And don’t worry about your files. I’ll make them disappear. No one will be able to tell you’re a vampire.”

I smiled at the lovely young woman. “Thank you, Leia.” The rosy blush on her cheeks was exquisite.

The door slowly opened but I hadn’t heard the sound of the door knob being turned. Had we been having this conversation with the door partially open?

Milliardo, or should I say Zechs, strode into the room. “Is it true? Instructor Treize, is what the nurse said true!? Is that why you so rarely get hurt? Is that why you are so much better than everyone else? Is that why I can never beat you!?”

Leia turned to face him. She called a curt, “Cadet.” Zechs’ eyes shifted to her and then glazed over, but before she could complete her glamour I commanded, “Stop.” Zechs’ eyes returned their focus.

Leia turned to me. “I’ll go take care of those files.” She quietly left the room, shutting the door behind her.

I faced Zechs. “I have lived for just short of a millennia and a half. I was born in Europe during the late 1700s AD calendar.”²

Zechs stared steadily back at me. “Make me one too.”

I shook my head. “No. Human life should be given the utmost respect. You have such short lifespans, but because of that, you burn so brightly while you’re alive. Humans are truly beautiful.”

With a determined “I’ll change your mind” he left the room.

* * *

_Wufei’s POV_ ³

I could hear Zunyan opening the front gate. There must be a visitor.

“These ‘Sages’ I’ve been told about, they really can tell you what you need to do?” An unknown voice filtered through the open door. Meilan gave an amused snort and whispered to me, “It sounds like we have a real genius this time.”

“They can assist you in making an informed decision on your problem.” _Ah, always dependable Zunyan._

I could make out the sounds of only two sets of footsteps as they approached so we only had one visitor this time.

Zunyan entered the room with a man following closely behind. He gave off no sense of the immortal so it was merely a human this time. _Curious._ It wasn’t often that humans were informed about my wife’s and my existence. He appeared to be in his mid-40s and wore the purple robes of leadership. _Must be the new head of the Long clan? Would explain why he was informed._

Zunyan gave a small bow in our direction before turning to the visitor. “Welcome to the Room of Guidance. May I introduce Masters Chang Wufei and Long Meilan.” He turned to us and continued, “Master Long Zi-Ling has come seeking guidance.” He gave another short bow and exited the room.

Meilan smiled at the visitor. “Greetings, Master Long. To what problem are you seeking guidance?”

Instead of answering, the visitor merely stood there gaping at us. I eventually grew impatient. “If you aren’t here for guidance, then leave already.”

That snapped him out of his daze. “This is a joke, right? Or some sort of test before I can see the Sages? I can’t really be expected to ask _children_ for guidance.”

I growled, “Don’t disrespect your elders,” as my wife squared her shoulders and demanded, “You dare question Nataku?”

We must have shown some of our inhuman nature because the poor human’s eyes went wide, laced with an edge of fear. I took a breath to calm myself and tried to find my center. In a more moderate voice I informed him, “We are the ones called the Sages. If you are here to seek guidance then please proceed and we will grant you all the assistance within our ability.”

In a voice with a barely noticeable shake, he stated, “I am here on behalf of the Long clan and Colony L5-A0206. I am sure you have heard about the Earth’s plans on forming the United Earth Sphere Alliance despite already hostile interactions between the Earth and colonies. I seek your guidance on what the future of the Long clan and Colony L5-A0206 should be. What path should we take? Is there any chance of avoiding war?”

Of course, a human would be here to ask about human affairs. I had no interest in the topic and thus allowed Meilan to handle the guidance. She always had an interest in humans including their governments while my interest in humans extended merely to their arts.

It was some time before Master Long gave a low bow and thanked Meilan for her guidance before leaving the room. I was about to reopen my book to continue my studies when I got thwapped on the back of the head. I straightened my glasses and turned to find Meilan glaring at me. “You could have paid more attention. I know you don’t think much of humans but they’ll surprise you. And this stuff is important!”

“Humans are too focused on their short little lives. There’s nothing they could do that would ever be important.” I got thwapped upside the head again. “Woman!”

She held her hand up, grinning. “You aiming for a third?” Her face turned serious again. “I know you haven’t forgotten the previous World Wars, and the casualties they caused for both our kind. And the world has grown now. There are all the colonies to consider. If a war broke out among the humans it could be devastating. We need to do something. It’s the just thing to do.”

“You and your justice again.” I reached out to cup her cheek. “You know I will never deny you anything, but on this I simply cannot agree. Force the humans to deal with their own messes. _That_ is justice.”

She turned her head just enough to kiss the palm of my hand. “You and I will simply have to remain in disagreement on this. I plan to do something to help prevent this war, and barring that, to end it before it gets out of hand.” She gave me a cheeky grin. “You are more than welcome to admit you’re wrong and help me at any point.”

* * *

_Zechs’ POV_ ⁴

I pressed the trigger and saw the terrorist’s mobile suit go down but there was no explosion. I decided to fly closer to make sure the enemy was neutralised. I found him in the middle of the road but… _How did he get a hostage!?_ The terrorist was holding a gun to a young girl’s head.

“D-Don’t move! You move one inch… I’ll _kill_ the Darlian girl!”

_Darlian? Could it be Relena?_

“Now get outta that mobile suit!”

There was nothing I could do but comply. I couldn’t fire on him with the Aries or I would risk hitting the hostage. And I couldn’t risk that it was Relena. _Damn it! She was suppose to stay safe!_ I unbuckled the harness and opened the hatch, stepping out onto the tarmac.

The terrorist started to eye my suit. _The idiot doesn’t know who he’s dealing with._ While he was distracted, I quickly drew my gun and shot his wrist, forcing him to drop his own gun. Relena jerked out of his grasp and ran to me. The terrorist simply continued to kneel on the ground in pain. _I can’t let her see how bloody my hands are._ “I don’t want to kill in front of this girl. Leave us.” The coward ran, leaving me alone with my sister.

I turned to face her. She had grown so much since the last time I saw her. _She has Mother’s eyes…_ I gripped my gun harder. _Close. Too close. I never should have let that terrorist get near her. I need to be faster. I need to be better._

_If I no longer am bound by the limitations of humans, would I then be able to keep my baby sister safe?_

* * *

_Father Maxwell’s POV_ ⁵

I placed the thin silver cross on the worktable in front of me. I grabbed one of the many pieces of chalk lying around and started to sketch the casting circle. “Mikhael! Grab some chalk and help with these runes!”

“Should just turn the pet out. Make him fend for himself. Dunno why we gotta do so much work for him.”

Some days I wonder if it was a mistake to take him on as an apprentice. I turned to glare at my wayward student. “No matter what his circumstances, he is still a _human child_. Keep that in mind. And tell me, how do you break a Claim spell?”

He answered quickly, trying to impress. “The only way to break a Claim spell on a human is to kill the vampire who cast it.”

I waited patiently. His face suddenly drained of all color. _He gets it now._ “We killed all the vampires in that lair and yet this Claim spell is still active. Vampires tend to be rather possessive of their Claimed humans. I do not want to lead an irate vampire to my orphanage. So, get over here and help with this spell.”

He hurried over and grabbed his own piece of chalk, quickly starting to sketch in runes.

A few minutes later we both set aside our pieces of chalk. I gave a quick final check to the casting circle. Perfect. I placed my palms together and calmed my mind. “Ave Maria, gratia plena, Dominus tecum.” The circle began to glow. “Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, ut hoc materno prosequitur benedicito crucem in protectione Dei filius.” I crossed myself while speaking the last line of the spell. “In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti. Amen.”⁶ The casting circle’s light flared brilliant and blinding and then instantly winked out. I reached forward to pick up the small cross. “Now to give this to Duo.”

* * *

_Treize’s POV_ ⁷

“Mobile doll production has been increased. And development of the new models is reaching it’s final stages including the new scan devices. We should be able to start test flights soon.”

“Good. Inform me when the Mercurius and Vayeate are ready for their test flights.”

Chief Engineer Tubarov’s image on the screen nodded then the connection was cut. Duke Dermail turned his attention towards myself. “It shouldn’t be long before every country will be practically begging to be governed by OZ and thus the Romefeller Foundation.”

“I would advise against a dependence on mobile dolls.”

Dermail seemed surprised by my statement. “And why do you believe that, Treize?”

“By filling your armies with machines, you are removing the soul of wars. Humans are most beautiful when they are putting their short lives at risk but guarding them with all their might.”

* * *

_Duo’s POV_ ⁸

There was a sudden lack of sound that every colony brat would be able to recognise right away and grew up on fear of. The vents were no longer pumping oxygen-rich air into our containment cell. _Just fucking swell._

I knew it would be useless before I even tried, but I got up anyways to ram the door with my shoulder, trying to knock it open.

“Stay calm if you want to live a little bit longer.”

 _Says the bajillion year old vamp who probably doesn't even need to breathe._ “I don’t know about you but I don’t stand a chance unless something pretty drastic happens.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll find some way to rescue you.”

“No you won’t! I’m not some fuckin’ damsel in distress! I’ll rescue my own damn self! ...Maybe.” I flopped over onto the floor. “This is such a lame way to die! This is so not cool!”

-

I was sweating and I could already feel my thoughts turning fuzzy. I tried distracting myself with Trowa’s little gift. _My new Deathscythe would kick some serious OZ ass._ I clicked the button to cycle through the slides. My vision was starting to turn grey around the edges. _Too bad I’m only a mere mortal._ I glanced over to Wufei. It still sorta weirded me out to see him lying there not breathing. It just kinda hammered home that he was different from me. _Wonder how else vamps are different?_ “Can vamps fuck?” _Shit. I just asked that out loud didn’t I? Stupid brain and it’s stupid lack of oxygen._

He sat up and stared at me, one brow raised. “Let me get this straight. You’re wasting your oxygen to ask me if vampires can have intercourse?”

I really hoped the whole, you know, lack of oxygen thing helped hide my blush. “Forget I said anything.”

He smirked. “Yes. And we’re really good at it too.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> -Author’s Note-
> 
> Sorry this isn’t a real chapter. Hopefully it isn't too disappointing. 
> 
> Are there any other backstory bits or scenes from an alternate POV that readers want to see?
> 
> [1] Takes place sometime during this story’s chapter 2, and in Gundam Wing’s Episode Zero manga.
> 
> [2] In case you didn’t bother to read the wall-o-text at the end of chapter 1 (I don’t blame you :P), I defined 3000AD as when the Earth switched to the AC calendar.
> 
> [3] Takes place around 55-ish? years before Operation Meteor.  
> (I had trouble guessing Master Long’s age since “old as fuck” isn’t a valid number. So I decided to just give him a nice round number and say he was 100 when he decided to pull a Heero.)
> 
> [4] Sometime during chapter 2 and GW’s Episode Zero. (And after Treize’s little backstory.)
> 
> [5] Sometime during chapter 2 and GW’s Episode Zero.
> 
> [6] Hail Mary, full of Grace, the Lord is with thee.  
> Holy Mary, mother of God, {bless this cross with a mother's love so that this child of God shall be protected.}  
> In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.  
> (The parts in { } are from Google translate and thus probably wrong. The rest is stolen from Latin prayers.)
> 
> [7] Takes place sometime during this story’s chapter 7, and somewhere around episode 22 in Gundam Wing. (I have trouble hitting Treize’s level of purple prose. -.-)
> 
> [8] Sometime during chapter 7 and GW episodes 24&25.


	9. Chapter 9

I woke up shackled on a transport ship with Quatre beside me. Heavily armed guards loomed over us. Trowa was no where to be seen.

We landed back on Lunar Base and one of the OZ guards jabbed me roughly with his gun. “Come on, Gundam scum.” I shot him a glare but complied. There really was no advantage to fighting back at this point in time.

We only made it as far as the hangar. Not because Quatre or I suddenly came up with a means to escape, but because of outside influence. Another group of armed guards showed up to surround us. They wore uniforms similar, but just slightly different to the OZ uniform. I heard one of the OZ guards near us say something about ‘the Treize Faction’. _Seems there’s dissent in the ranks. Interesting._ Though I didn’t know if this actually helped us at all. Seeing as we were passed from one armed escort to another, as they continued to lead us back to the cells. It seemed more a situation of ‘out of the frying pan, into the fire’.

We were tossed into a cell. It looked the same as when I left it with one very noticeable difference. Wufei and Duo were gone. _Did they escape?_ I hoped that was the case. I had to just assume it was. Thinking about the other possibilities would be just too distracting.

* * *

Our quiet contemplation was interrupted some hours later by the cell door being opened. One guard entered the room, two metal trays of food in his hands while another stood in the doorway, gun at the ready. The trays were tossed on the floor, the food jostled, but remained on the metal surface while the guard turned back to the door leaving us once again in silence.

I walked over to the trays, picking up both of them. I sat near Quatre and handed him his share. I picked at the food. It seemed appetizing enough… for human fare. And while I can eat food, it does absolutely nothing for me. Being locked in a cell with Quatre though, I felt I needed to keep up appearances.

“Give me that.”

My tray was suddenly no longer in my lap. I looked up to see Quatre setting it on the floor beside him. I raised a questioning eyebrow at his actions.

“You and I both know that’s useless for you. I’ll eat it to bolster my strength, and you can feed off me.”

His attention never left the food on his plate, but he held his left wrist up towards me. _He can’t possibly mean what I think he means, right? But… what else could that mean?_ I realised I was open-mouthed staring and composed myself. He finally glanced up at me.

“You’re going to need to keep your strength up if we’re going to get ourselves out of this mess, and I’m sure it’s been awhile since you’ve fed.” My eyes shifted back to my former tray on the floor. He rolled his own eyes. “I already know what you are. And since the guards have just been here, it’ll probably be awhile before they’re back. Now would be the best time, assuming you don’t want to get caught in the act?” He moved his hand in such a way as to draw attention back to his raised wrist and express impatience at the same time.

I brushed off my shock. While I was surprised he knew what I was, he was also correct. I really needed to feed to be at my optimal strength, to be ready for whatever may happen. I gripped his wrist and brought it up to my mouth. I gave a last minute check for confirmation. He nodded at me, then went back to eating his food one-handed. I opened my mouth, and sank my teeth into the soft, yielding flesh of his wrist.

The crimson liquid welled up. The Hunger sang in pleasure. Quatre let out a low moan and I instantly jerked back. A quick mental check showed I still had a thorough block locking down the Connection, so why did it seem he was feeling what I was feeling? I stared at him with wide eyes.

He gave me a slightly sheepish look. “Sorry. It’s my empathy. Runs in the family.”

“You’re an empath?”

He gave a quick glance at his wrist still held in my hands. I followed his look to notice the twin thin rivulets of blood just starting to drip to the floor. I brought his wrist back to my mouth and tried to keep my mind blank as I fed.

“I call it my Space Heart. It’s actually how I could tell what you were. For some reason vampires just feel ‘different’.”

I made sure not to feed too much. While I needed to keep my strength up, he needed to keep his up as well. I healed the puncture wounds and thanked him for the offer.

He gave me a small smile, a quiet “You’re welcome” and turned back to finish his meal.

* * *

I nudged Quatre awake when I heard the door unlock. A pair of the green uniformed guards entered the room. “Alright, you pilots, follow us. And don’t give us any trouble.” We were lead out of the cell and down the many nondescript metal halls. My mental map informed me we were heading towards the research and development labs. _Are Dr. J and the others still here?_

Sure enough, when we entered the lab all five of the Gundam scientists were there. Right away they made Quatre sit in a chair near their machines and hooked up EEG sensors so they could monitor his brainwaves. They were interested in if the system from that new Gundam had any permanent effect.

I took the time to get a status update from Dr. J over the current political situation. He informed me that Romefeller had decided to remove Treize from command, resulting in OZ splitting into two factions. _Is this part of your plan, Treize? Or has this gotten out of even your far-reaching control?_

“The other two pilots, Duo Maxwell and Wufei Chang, escaped during OZ’s internal unrest.” My interest piqued with that comment from J. I let out an internal sigh of relief. _Duo escaped. They didn’t terminate him. Duo… my Duo… is safe._

I frowned at that. I had never really thought about having a Claimed human before and I hadn’t come to terms yet with what this would mean for me. It was really just a spur of the moment decision to Claim him in the first place, and I had never planned to see him again. Though, by custom, I really have an obligation towards him now. In exchange for the human being ‘theirs’, a vampire is expected to protect and provide for their Claimed. Some treated their Claimed humans as little more than pets. I snorted at that, trying to imagine Shinigami letting anyone treat him like a pet. _He’d probably eviscerate me simply for the thought._ Others treated their Claimed as friends or companions. And then there were the ones whose Claimed were also their lover.

A felt a sensation like a swarm of butterflies taking roost in my stomach. _Is that what I want? Do I want Duo to be… my lover?_ Duo was definitely a trusted ally. And despite my attempts otherwise, I would have to call him my friend. But did I feel about him in _that_ way? _I’ll have to think on this more..._

* * *

The Treize Faction for some reason gave us free reign of their systems. I sat in front of one of their computer terminals reviewing schematics and technical data for the new Gundam. _Do they even have any idea what I could do with this terminal alone?_ I mentally shook my head at the naiveté of this new faction.

“Heero.” Quatre’s voice breaking the silence nearly startled me. “I’ve been wondering who our allies are and who our enemies are in this war. I get confused thinking about it.”

I turned the chair to face him. “Quatre, the ones after your life and the targets you aim to defeat are the enemy.”

“But… what if you find you were mistaken?”

“We’re not mistaken about this.” _Anyone after my life is an enemy and will be treated as such, regardless of faction or alliances… but there does seem to be a lot of shifting alliances. If this war is no longer following Treize’s plan, then is it out of control completely?_ “But...” Quatre had assumed my pause was the end of the conversation and had started to turn away, but he turned back at my call. I met his eyes with my own. “It’s possible this period of war has gone nuts.”

Both of our heads shot to face the door at the sound of gunfire. When we checked the hall outside we found it empty of even the guards that had been stationed there. Suddenly there was the sound of static and then a voice over the station’s PA system.

“Members of the Treize Faction, we have surrounded your hideout.” As Duo would say, seemed things were getting interesting once again. “I must say I have some reservations about fighting against former comrades without talking things over first. I think we can avoid senseless bloodshed. First of all, I can't promise to release all of you. However, I guarantee that you will all live. As long as we can cooperate with each other.” _Stop with the speech and just get to the point already._ We started heading down the hall to the main room. The voice continued, “I didn't know that you doctors were in there as well.” _Sounds like J is cutting in. Maybe we’ll get somewhere now._ Just before Quatre and I made it back to the main hall we heard, “We'd like you to hand over the Gundam pilots to us. Because we want to record combat data on the Gundam.”

I looked over to Quatre. He squared his small shoulders and gave me a nod. Together, we entered the main hall to face whatever would come next.

* * *

The OZ troops wasted no time in attaching brainwave sensors to my head and having me enter Wing Zero. I gave a quick assessment of the cockpit layout. It really is just like Wing. The only difference was a small, unassuming switch located in the corner of the equipment panel. That must be the ZERO System Quatre mentioned.

I went through the regular start-up pattern of switches, buttons and levers. Then I reached to hit the switch in the corner. I felt the oddest sensation. It was almost like a cool liquid slowly being poured into my brain, leaving a calm blankness in its wake.

Once everything was ready, I pressed the button to open a broadcasting comm frequency to inform the OZ troops to start their tests. A battery of targets showed up on Zero’s interface. The test had begun.

It started out slow, only a few targets, but they gradually increased as I destroyed them. There were three on the left, I “turned” Zero to fire upon them. The interface showed the simulated explosions and the dots disappeared.

Two on the right, fire. Straight ahead, fire. Above, fire. On the right again, fire. Fire. Fire. Fire.

Everywhere I turn there are enemies…

Press button. Turn joystick. Fire. Fire. Fire.

Enemies… surrounded by enemies...

Fire. Fire. Fire. Flip switch. Press lever.

My enemies… are the ones after my life.

Move forward. Pull saber. Swing. Explosion.

Fire. Fire. Swing. Fire.

Cut. Rip. Fire. Charge. Swing.

Enemy?

“Heero, that cockpit increases your fighting abilities but at the same time you lose control.”

Quatre. Enemy?

“Quatre. I've got a very clear view of the enemy. If you're going to be an enemy, then I'm going to have to kill you.”

“That Gundam is all on its own but we must've fight alone, right? You lose sight of the target when you fight by yourself!”

My enemies are the ones after my life and the targets I aim to defeat.

“I can see my target. I see my enemy.”

Charge. Swing.

“There's still a self-detonation system left in this suit. If you won't stop fighting, I will destroy these two mobile suits right here! These mobile suits are the least necessary things in outer space right now! But there's something else that outer space needs even less.”

“Outer space needs the Gundams. And I'll fight to defend outer space!”

Press advantage.

“We aren't needed. WE AREN’T NEEDED IN OUTER SPACE, HEERO!”

“What!?” I jerked back in shock. _What am I doing? What's the matter with me? I nearly_ killed _Quatre._

_What the hell just happened to me!?_

My stomach started to heave. _It’s this system. It’s just not right. I need to get out of here, now!_ I pressed the switch to open the hatch. I barely even waited for it to fully open before I dived out, not bothering with the cable used to enter and exit the Gundam. I felt myself slam against the hard metal floor.

“Are you ok, Heero?” Quatre ran up to my prone form and helped me to stand. “Heero, let’s go to Earth.” _The colonies no longer want to fight. Gundams are for fighting. Gundams are no longer needed in space._ I nodded in agreement. We made our way to the shuttles, stealing one and set in a course to Earth.

* * *

Quatre brought the shuttle in to land on a stretch of beach. Since we didn’t have any supplies and neither of us knew the direction toward the nearest settlement, we decided to just wait for whatever faction was nearest us to come investigate and then go from there.

It wasn’t long before a small troop of soldiers showed up. Their uniforms had no distinguishing characteristics identifying a faction so I couldn’t tell if we were in for a fight or not. The fact they didn’t try to kill us on sight was a promising development. They informed us they were a small country defense force loyal to the Romefeller Foundation, but given the friendly treatment we received, the laid back attitudes of the guards on us, and the little detail of them not following through with Romefeller’s standing execution order on us, I surmised they weren’t that loyal.

* * *

It was sometime that night when Quatre noticed it. The “guards” they had set on us were just a couple of dogs. We took it as a message that they wanted us to quietly leave so they wouldn’t have to deal with us and the trouble that follows us. We weren’t about to turn down the offer.

We stole one of the troop’s planes and took off. They probably thought we were going to simply escape and bunker down somewhere, but we’re Gundam pilots. Fighting is what we do. And we still had enemies out there.

We headed toward the nearest group of Romefeller troops, a small fleet of warships off the coast. We came in hot, the plane sliding across the ship’s landing pad, guns firing. Not having the time to wait for its slide to come to a stop, I dove from the plane into a roll. Quatre provided cover fire as I sprinted to the door granting access to the decks below.

I ran down the metal halls. I had to make it to the ship’s hangar before the other ships could respond. Rounding a corner, I came across three soldiers. Quick as I could, I invoked a glamour, simply yelling, “Freeze!” They gave me no trouble as I ran past.

None too soon I finally made it to the hangar and jumped in the nearest Leo. I rushed the start-up, not waiting for the usual safety checks and brought the Leo’s rifle up to fire on the nearest two boats. I then provided backup as Quatre charged the command bridge.

We forced the crew to evacuate, claiming the ship as our own. We really had no need for a warship, but it would hurt OZ’s troops to lose it.

“Heero, where should we head to now?” Quatre gazed onto the sparkling ocean waters. “There are lots of kind people right here on the earth. But we'd be causing them a great deal of trouble by doing nothing more than just meeting them.” He sighed. “There is no place for us to go, is there?”

“As long as earth's a war zone, I'm going to fight.” _I have to end this war. It’s not even about Treize anymore. This war has gotten out of hand and has to be stopped for both vampire and humankind’s sake._

* * *

I laid on an empty bunk in one of the ship’s crew quarters. Quatre had picked a direction to head the ship but I couldn’t really care less where we were heading. It really made no difference. I’ll be fighting no matter where we end up.

_My enemies are the ones after my life. OZ continues to try to kill me. They are my enemy. Romefeller decreed the execution order for Gundam pilots. They are my enemy. Treize tried to have me killed. He is my enemy. The Treize Faction… are they my enemy? Are they actually receiving orders from Treize or just remaining loyal to him? They haven’t tried to kill me yet. They aren’t my enemy?_

I heard footsteps echoing down the metal corridor outside. Since Quatre was the only other person on the ship, I knew it had to be him. He entered the room and sat on one of the bunks facing me.

“It’s been a few days. How often do you need to feed?”

“Unless I experience massive blood loss I can generally go a couple weeks between feedings. And since our situation is unstable right now, I’ll probably take up sleeping. That will help me conserve my energy and I’ll be able to go longer before I feel the need to feed again. You don’t have to worry. I won’t be forced to make you weak from anemia or force myself to starve.” I saw him visibly relax and gave him a small smile.

His face lit up in a returning smile. “Don’t hesitate to ask if the need arises though. While I don’t fancy the idea of being weak when we may face a battle any moment, you’re the more competent physical fighter if it comes to that and I don’t want to compromise that.”

“Understood.”

He stood up and started to head to the door. “I’ll take first watch. So you get some rest.”

I gave an affirmative nod and settled into the bunk.

* * *

My Gundam glided smoothly through space, dancing to my ever shifting control. Every fire of my buster rifle took out yet another mobile doll. The calm blankness in my mind helping me to focus. I went from enemy to enemy. Destroying them all.

The targets seemed endless. Wave upon wave. I just kept fighting, never tiring. Eventually I was done. The last target destroyed. I blinked and it seemed like my eyes suddenly focused. I looked at the destruction around me displayed on Zero’s view monitors. Bits of debris floating, spinning aimlessly. Then I noticed one particular piece of debris. Part of a black mobile suit.

I quickly grabbed the controls to spin my suit around, looking every which way. I found it above me. Deathscythe. Duo’s Gundam. It was drifting silently, not moving.

An entire arm was missing, up to where the cockpit would be located.

I boosted the thrusters as I opened a private comm channel. “Duo!” When I reached his Gundam with no response, I switched to all channels. “Duo! Respond! Now!” I inspected his Gundam. The metal appeared almost melted at the edges. But only certain weapons could cause damage like that, Duo’s scythe, and my buster rifle. “ No…” The cockpit could be seen through the damage. It was empty. “No.” My eyes shifted frantically over the debris displayed on my screens. Then I saw it. A body, floating among the pieces of mobile dolls and black Gundanium. A body with a very distinctive braid of hair. “No!”

Zero responded to my command and we were instantly by his side. I reached out with Gundanium fingers to cradle his form and pull it closer. His suit was torn and burnt in places. His helmet was completely missing. “No… please no.” His lips were already blue. His face was already bloated from the depressurisation. 

_He’s dead. Duo’s dead._

I pressed the palm of my hand against the viewscreen displaying his body, touching his image. _I’ll never see his smile again. Never hear his laugh. Duo’s dead._

_He’s dead and it’s all my fault!_

* * *

I jerked awake, forehead nearly slamming into the bunk above mine. I bent my legs and pulled them toward me, wrapping my arms around them. I buried my face in my knees.

It took some time to finally calm myself.

* * *

When we reached Quatre’s chosen destination, we dealt with the ship. A few safety stops disabled and valves turned shut later, and we stood on the beach to watch as the engine overheated causing an explosion. Since those ships are designed with most of the important equipment toward the center of the ship as to prevent damage from enemy fire, an engine explosion would fully disable the ship, taking out all the other delicate equipment required for it to run. OZ could always salvage the hull, but for the most part that ship was now useless to them.

We turned and head toward the nearest civilisation. We needed to stock up on some supplies.

* * *

While grabbing some rations for Quatre, we noticed some members of the Treize Faction getting supplies as well.

_The ones after my life are my enemy. The Treize Faction hasn’t tried to kill me. They aren’t my enemy? OZ is my enemy. The Treize Faction is OZ’s enemy. Is the Treize Faction an ally?_

“Heero, I’ve got all the supplies I’ll need for now.”

I turned away from my observation of the soldiers. “Quatre, I’m going to help the Treize Faction fight.”

“What? That’s absurd, Heero. It's a dispute within their organisation.”

“OZ is my enemy. The Treize Faction is OZ’s enemy. I’m going to fight with them. Execution orders have been issued for us Gundam pilots. It's my way of retaliating.”

“I can’t go along with this.” He picked up his supply bag and pulled it over one shoulder. “If you insist on doing this, then this is where we part ways.”

“Understood.” I left him there to meet up with the soldiers.

* * *

The Treize Faction troops had no problem with letting me fight against OZ with them. We slowly started taking out the OZ forces in the surrounding area. Everything went smoothly until OZ decided we were a big enough threat to break out their new model of mobile dolls.

The Virgos’ energy shields were too much for the Leo rifles to handle. The mobile dolls slowly and steadily advanced, cutting through the Treize Faction troops with little resistance. My Leo received fire to the left shoulder. The whole left arm was lost. _I’ll fight through this._ I forced my suit to stand back up. To resume return fire. _I’ll fight through this longer than anyone._ I didn’t have the firepower to break through the shields, but I continued firing anyway. _I’ll fight through this! It’s my way of retaliating!_

Suddenly an Aries flies up out of nowhere, disabling the nearest Virgo. Quatre’s voice came in over a comm channel. “Heero, are you alright? Heero, we can’t die yet!” _I know I can’t die yet. I haven’t yet stopped this war._ “Listen to me! We have to protect the Sanc Kingdom!”

 _What?_ “The Sanc Kingdom?”

“That's right! That's the job we must do here on earth!”

 _Why would we need to protect the Sanc Kingdom?_ A low-flying plane appeared overhead and something fell from it’s hatch landing on the ground nearby. When the dust settled, I could see it was Wing’s buster rifle.

“You're Gundam pilots so I'm sure you know how to use that.” _Noin? Is that Noin flying the plane?_

Quatre flew his Aries over to pick up the gun. The beam had no trouble eating through the Virgos’ shields and he quickly dispatched the battalion of mobile dolls. The plane landed and the hatch opened, displaying Noin. “Come on! Get on and I’ll get us outta here!”

Quatre and I left our suits and sprinted over to the small plane. Noin wasted no time in getting it back in the air. Quatre walked up to her and leaned against the pilot’s chair. “We need to go to the Sanc Kingdom.”

Noin smirked. “Well, then it’s a good thing that that’s where I was planning on bringing you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> -Author’s Note-
> 
> Kept putting this chapter off so I finally gave myself a deadline and then proceeded to do what any proper, respectable adult would do. “Oh no! I can’t work on this _now_ I _suddenly_ have to go do laundry!” “Oh no! I _suddenly_ have to go vacuum all the floors!” “Oh no! I _suddenly_ have to go clean the kitchen!” “Oh no! I _suddenly_ have to go through _all_ the crap in storage and drag the junk I don’t need to Goodwill!”
> 
> Gundam Wing has a surprising amount of boring crap between all the cool stuff. Sometimes I just want to type “they do stuff”.
> 
> One thing I’ve never understood… how the hell do Duo and Wufei actually escape Lunar Base? Une turns the air back on, but they’re still in the cell (which they tried getting out of when the air got cut off in the first place and failed) but then you see them in their new Gundams. Also, where the hell did the Treize Faction get a whole army’s worth of slightly different colored uniforms outta nowhere? Does OZ just have a whole warehouse of reject uniforms somewhere? “Ugh… they made _green_ ones again instead of _blue_. How many times must we tell them blue? Put ‘em with the others.”
> 
> That dream was suppose to be fluffy cuddles or something. But my brain was all, “NO! I want some ZERO System PTSD shit!” and woke me up at 3 in the morning to force me to write that.
> 
> Timeline: Episodes 26-30


End file.
